The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers

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Brendan Myers, Druidry, Druids, history of pagan philisophy, humanism, modern pagan thought, neo-platonism, pagan philisophy, Pantheism, philosophy

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul was published by Moon Books on 29 November 2013 and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to review this book prior to publication.  My review was first posted on www.ingridhall.com on the 28 October 2013.

About the author

Brendan Myers is a Canadian author and philosophy professor who has worked in Canada and Ireland and has been a frequent visitor to England and Germany.  He has written on many topics including environmental ethics and climate change and his research into druidry won him the Mount Haemus Award from the Order of Druids, Ovates and Bards in 2008.  You can find out more about Brendan on his website: http://www.brendanmyers.net/wickedrabbit/

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers

The Sub-heading for this book is:  A history of Pagan Philosophy, from the Iron Age to the 21st Century – and it certainly does what it says on the tin!  This is a weighty book and yet it is also a very lucid introduction to a vast range of philosophers and proto-philosophers from the ancient to modern.  Myers traces the roots and branches of Pagan thinking and philosophy over several thousand years – analysing the various philosophical arguments and propositions presented in the various sources: from the Classical world and its renowned philosophers such as Plato and Socrates, through the lacuna in pagan writings during the Christian era, to the stirrings of pagan philosophy found in  ‘Barbarian’ works of the Irish Wisdom Texts and Poetic Eddas.  He follows the route of pagan thought through to the Age of Reason and to the Nature writers of nineteenth century America – who brought nature to the fore in their world view.

Myers explores the nineteenth and twentieth century revivals of paganism via Madame Blavatsky, James Frazer and Robert Graves, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardiner and Doreen Valiente and brings the work right up to the present day via the birth of modern Neo-Paganism.   Finally he considers whether Pagan Philosophy has developed a critical tradition (with argument, criticism, counter-criticism etc shaping and re-developing/re-interpreting ideas) whilst being effectively denied the institutional support of museums, universities and the like due to the ascendancy of Christianity for much of recent history.

I have to say, this book took me a while to read.  Although I had heard of most of the philosophers mentioned (and even read some of them) I have never studied philosophy so, frankly, don’t really understand it very much!!  Hence I was expecting to be just a bit out of my depth with this book.  However, I was happily surprised.  Myers is a very good writer and presents his arguments with passion and clarity.

Myers takes time to clearly lay out what makes a philosophical argument: basically asking really BIG questions and using ‘systematic critical reasoning’ to investigate them (N.B. but to avoid dogmatic ‘Answers’ as philosophy is an ongoing process!) He also outlines how he proposes to define ‘pagan philosophers’ as clearly many of the writers in the ‘Christian Era’ may have held more or less recognizably pagan views but would not necessarily have identified themselves as pagans.  To justify his choice of writers, he explains the three main strands of paganism that he considers are identifying factors in pagan philosophy:  Pantheism, Neo-Platonism and Humanism.

I could write A LOT on this book.  I found it utterly fascinating and extremely well researched.  The second half of the book, which deals with writers who may be more familiar to Modern Pagan readers (Blavatsky, Frazer, Graves, Crowley, Bonewits, the Farrer’s) I found to be easier to read simply because they were more familiar to me.   Myers also examines the influence of Feminist Philosophers (including the legendary Simone De Beauvoir) on pagan thinking, and the intersecting of eco-theory into the mainstay of pagan world views – I found these sections to be of particular interest as they seemed to show the beginnings of a critical tradition within paganism.

The history of Paganism and Neo-Paganism and its philosophical heritage deserve to be considered worthy of serious study.  Modern Pagan need to re-evaluate some of the ‘accepted truths’ of Neo-Paganism  – such as Murray’s surviving witch-cult; Daly’s ‘Burning Times’ – and consider that they are more akin to foundation myths rather than history.  However, as Myers notes, this does not diminish their importance because they still clearly have mythical and poetic truths contained within them. Nevertheless recognizing this will help in further developing a serious ‘critical tradition’ for Pagans which can only be a good thing. I think that Brendan Myers book is an important part of this growing trend for serious study of paganism and its philosophy.

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers was published on the 29 November.  It is available to order on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Earth-Gods-Soul-Philosophy/dp/178099317X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382987116&sr=8-1&keywords=the+earth+the+gods+and+the+soul

Celestial Madness – the glass harmonica

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armonica, Benjamin Franklin, bowl organ, crystallophone, eighteenth century, Glass harmonica, Gluck, madness, Marianne Davis, Mesmer, music

Benjamin Franklin at his Armonica by Alan Foster, 1926
(cover from “Etude Magazine”, January 1927)

I first came across the glass harmonica or glass armonica when reading Lydia Syson’s excellent book ‘Doctor of Love: James Graham and his Celestial Bed’ while I was researching that fabulously eccentric eighteenth century sexologist.

Of the many extraordinary and complex musical instruments that enjoyed often brief vogue in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the eerie tones of the Glass Harmonica seemed to fit perfectly into the growing urge for sensation and sensibility.  Graham was no stranger to the glass harmonica, and being an early fan of music therapy he employed it to great effect in his exotic Temple of Health and Hymen.

Other fans included Anton Mesmer, famous proponent of Animal Magnetism and Mesmerism, who used the intense celestial music of the glass harmonica to help guide his patients into a deep trance.

The instrument enjoyed popularity in Britain, Europe and America and over 100 pieces of music were written for the instrument during its heyday including works by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven.

Music for Glass Harmonica by Mozart, source Thomas Bloch website

Benjamin Franklin and the glassychord

The glass harmonica – briefly called the ‘glassychord’ – was a technical upgrade on the ‘wineglass filled with water’ branch of music (a popular form of music in the early eighteenth century); it was developed by none other than Benjamin Franklin during his time in England as Colonial Agent.

Franklin was inspired to create his glass harmonica, or armonica as he later named it, following Edmund Delavals performance on the wine glasses in 1758.  OK, its not as low brow as it sounds, this form of music has been around for hundreds of years, and was very popular.  It was given some very dignified names: Seraphim, Glass harp and (titter ye not) the Angelic Organ.

Franklin (always a fan of more popular than high-brow music) loved the sound of the glasses, but wanted more harmonies in his music (American’s are so demanding LOL) so he set about re-designing the instrument.  Wikipedia describes his innovations thus: “an instrument consisting of variously sized and tuned glass bowls that rotate on a common shaft, played by touching the spinning glass with wet fingers”

Replica of Franklin’s Glass Armonica. Image by Vince Flango, 2008

His main innovation seems to have been tipping the glasses on their side and rotating them. Originally the glasses would have rotated through a trough of water.  Franklin also developed a colour coding system to indicate the note that each glass represented.

His new Glassychord was premiered in 1762, played by the musician Marianne Davies (b.1743/44 -d.1818).

The Bristol Journal advertised it as:

“The celebrated glassy-chord, invented by Mr. Franklin of Philadelphia: who has greatly improved the musical glasses, and formed them into a compleat instrument to accompany the voice; capable of a thorough bass, and never out of tune. Miss Davies from London, was to perform in the month of January, several favourite airs, English, Scotch and Italian, on the Glassychord (being the only one of the Kind that has yet been produced) accompanied occasionally with the voice and the German Flute.” January 12th 1762, quoted in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin (1)

Its harmonies and melodies were so intense and ethereal that it soon became known as the ‘voice of angels’ and was credited with the power to transport the listener to heightened states of emotion and sensation.

Celestial Music or Bad Vibes?

Marianne Davis playing the Glass Harmonica (Collection of Thomas Bloch)

Davies soon became famous for her performances on the instrument, Franklin seems to have had one made for her, whilst keeping one for himself.  She and her sister travelled Europe performing on the instrument to great acclaim.  Davis even taught Marie Antoinette the Armonica.  However, it is her later tribulations with poor health that have helped gain the Armonica its more sinister reputation.

“I had a violent return of my nervous complaints which brought me so low that there were little hopes of my recovery. I was near a twelvemonth confin’d to my Room, and most part of the time to my Bed.”  Extract from a letter from Marianne to Franklin 1783

Marianne eventually died in a mental hospital. It is worth noting she never attributed her illness to her long association with the glass harmonica – but that didn’t stop others making the link. Marianne Kirschgessner was another famous virtuoso on the glass armonica whose career was cut short – some said due to nerve damage caused by the instrument.

Others too, feared the baleful effects of its insanely ethereal tones fearing it could induce hysteria and even madness in listeners.  Tales of deaths during concerts lead to the instrument being banned by order of the police in certain German cities.  People credited it with scaring animals and causing premature births.  Although the eighteenth century was a century of scientific enlightenment, there was also a strong vein of superstition still running through it and some people feared that the otherworldly strains of the glass harmonica would raise the spirits of the dead.  This lead to proscriptions on the instruments usage:  not after midnight, and definitely not near a graveyard.  It may also explain its popularity at magic lantern horror shows.

Although the instrument undoubtedly had its fans:  Mozart, Jefferson, Paganini all adored it – it even featured in Mozart’s final work – it also had its critics:

JM Rogers, writing in his ‘Treatise on the Effects of Music on the Human Body, in 1803 stated:

“Its melancholy tone plunges you into dejection..to a point the strongest man could not hear it for an hour without fainting.”

Thomas Bloch, a contemporary glass harmonica musician provided the following quote from a musical dictionary about the Glass Harmonica’s baleful effects which said its tunes:

“..are of a nearly celestial softness..but can cause spasms” (!)

Suggestions of lead in the paint or glass have been put forward for the instruments unfortunate link with mental illness (Bloch points out that there was a 40% lead content in some glass at that time)…but what ever the cause, it’s association with madness was forever crystalized in the popular mind when Donizetti used it in his 1835 opera Lucia Di Lammermoor.  The eerie piping tones of the armonica emphasis the sense of Lucia’s derangement, following her bloody murder of her bridegroom, in what has become know as the ‘Mad Scene’.

The madness fades…

The instrument was popular on both sides of the Atlantic for about a hundred years, but eventually it fell out of fashion.  It’s sinister reputation for destroying the minds of those who played or heard it must have had an impact, but the fact was that the instrument was not an easy one to master and could be very temperamental.  Being made of glass it was delicate, and in depending on water for its tone, it could react badly if the water was either to hard or to soft.  Oh, and it was also a bit fussy about the temperature.

Its other big problem was that as fashions in music moved from the intimate chamber orchestra’s of the eighteenth century to the huge symphonies of the nineteenth, its voice simply got lost in the vastness of symphony orchestras and huge concert halls.  Amplification was simply not possible at the time.

Lady playing the Armonica, mid-eighteenth century. Image: Thomas Bloch Collection.

These days flutes can often be found replacing the glass harmonica in orchestras, but there are still a dozen or so players in the world today.  This is largely thanks to a Massachusetts glass blower called Finkenbeiner who began something of a renaissance for the instruments in the 1980’s.  Thanks to this you can still occasionally come across performances with this strange and melancholic instrument to this day.

Here are two examples of the Glass Harmonica in action – but remember – listen at your own peril – you have been warned!

Here Hayoung Lee sings Lucia in the ‘Mad Scene’ from Lucia Di Lammamoor by Donizetti, the performance is accompanied by Glass Harmonica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OviX_kGJg-8

Thomas Bloch playing Mozart on a Glass Harmonica based on Benjamin Franklin’s design:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XPfoFZYso8

Sources & Notes

http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/default.htm
http://www.glassarmonica.com/armonica/marianne_davies.php (1)
http://www.historybuff.com/newsletter/novem8.html
Syson, Lydia, 2008, ‘Doctor of Love: James Graham and his Celestial Bed’, Alma Books
http://www.thomasbloch.net/en_glassharmonica.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica

Art Preview: Hollywood Visions In Newcastle – from 21st November

Tags

An interview with Patrick Snape, Art exhibitions, digital art, Hollywood visions of newcastle, Newcastle upon tyne, Patrick Snape, photography exhibitions, tyneside, tyneside coffee rooms

Hollywood Visions of Newcastle by Patrick Snape;  Tyneside Coffee room from 21st November – March 2014

Image copyright Patrick Snape

Hollywood Visions in Newcastle is the creative brain child of artist, poet, performer and general all-round creative type Patrick Snape.  Patrick hails from the West Midlands and has a liking for Pot Noodles and ‘oney (in his tea which must be black).  Forgoing the wilds of the West (Midlands), he headed up north during the reign of The Thatcher and forged an underground career as an artist: master print maker, digital artist, poet and Tom Wait and Bob Dylan influenced performer.

I love Newcastle but often focus my attention on his history and its elegant classical architecture.  I was intrigued when I found out about this exhibition Hollywood Visions in Newcastle which successfully juxtaposes the playful and glamorous with the stark and thought-provoking, in order to create striking and atmospheric images set in an urban lanscape. I caught up with the artist (digitally of course!) to ask him what it all means!

Clara Subway Vision, image copyright Patrick Snape

‘For the past year or so I have been photographing in and around the city of Newcastle. On one occasion I imagined the elegant and classic image of Rudolph Valentino appearing on a graffiti strewn wall. This led to a series of works beginning with Valentino and then embracing other actors and figures from the golden age of Hollywood; Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bela Lugosi, Clara Bow.

With this series of digital montages I have been attempting to form a bridge between to the two eras; the Golden age of Hollywood and contemporary urban Britain; comments by association, a dialogue between the past and the present.’

Which artists have inspired you the most and how have they influenced your work?

Artists who have inspired me are Picasso, Braque, Miro, Matisse, and movements such as Pop Art, Dada, and in particular Surrealism with artists ranging from Magritte, early Dali and Max Ernst. The photographs of Man Ray and the films and drawings of Jean Cocteau still intrigue and excite me and photo montage and surrealism continue to exert a strong influence on my work which is evident in the Hollywood Visions in Newcastle both in technique and the use of unlikely juxtaposition of imagery.

I visit exhibitions regularly and occasionally see artists whose work inspires, motivates and influences my own approach (approach sometimes rather than style). A recent example of this was an exhibition at the Baltic art Gallery by Coventry based artist George Shaw noted for his highly detailed suburban landscapes, eerie paintings of the Coventry council estate where he grew up, devoid of people and bristling with atmosphere. Like the Belgium surrealist René Magritte Shaw creates mystery from the mundane, but unlike Magritte Shaw keeps it straight and factual, no juxtaposition of images, just eerie underpasses and deserted street corners. I always attempt to create atmosphere in my work, whether through the use of shadow and light or the choice of imagery, sometimes all those elements.

Hollywood Visions of Newcastle counterpoise the often decayed urban landscape with the glamor of Golden Era Hollywood – how do you feel this comments on post economic melt-down society?

The question underpins my main motivation for creating the Hollywood Visions in Newcastle. The Golden era of Hollywood was born in an age of economic depression and financial meltdown. In a sense I am creating a bridge between the two eras, allowing the characters from the past to speak to people today, a comment on our own economic depression. In one work Chaplin’s tramp from his masterpiece Modern Times is huddled in a H&M shop window whose message to the waves of passing public is a huge red and white sign announcing one word: SALE. I see the appearance of the figures from the Hollywood era as ‘projections’ of which the public are either aware of or completely oblivious (people, myself included, walk past or around homeless people, both seeing and ignoring). The appearance of the tramp and his girlfriend in the shop front is noticed but the flow of human traffic doesn’t cease. (It is important to remember that the actual members of the public who appear in my photographs are themselves oblivious to the fact they have become part of a tableau involving characters such as Valentino, Chaplin and Fred and Ginger!)

Modern Times, image, Copyright Patrick Snape

As a songwriter I became interested in the 1920’s, 1930’s period of music and wrote a collection of songs titled 3RD Degree, the song it’s self was influenced by the syncopated rhythms of  Fred Astaire’s Puttin’ on the Ritz. This in turn led to my first Hollywood Visions in Newcastle work inspired by watching the movies of Rudolph Valentino, in particular The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse in which Valentino performs a tango that today would terrify the Strictly come dancing audience! A powerful piece of drama, evocative and sensual.

Odeon Memories, Image copyright Patrick Snape

Looking at a series of photographs I’d taken around Newcastle city I imagined Valentino’s sullen beauty appearing in a subway and from that point on I created many Valentino works, watched his movies and researched his life, but then Chaplin appeared in a shop doorway advertising electrical goods, then Fred and Ginger danced in the sky above the Tyneside Cinema, Bela Lugosi trapped in a phone box, the Third Man in Grantham RD. and the three grizzled and gold hungry characters from the epic The Treasure of Sierra Madre emerged from the security grid of Reid & Sons Goldsmiths; the blur of a cyclist peddling past, two men lost in the business of communicating with the ubiquitous mobile phone, and the unintended irony of a hair salon positioned above the Goldsmiths (In an early scene in the Treasure Of Sierra Madre Bogart’s character Fred C.Dobbs visits a barbershop and receives a particularly severe haircut, considered one of the worst three haircuts in film history!)

Hollywood Visions of Newcastle utilises photography and digital techniques to create very atmospheric and striking images, how would you counter critics who think digital art is not ‘pure’ art?

I gave this question a great deal of thought and the best answer I can come up with is that all the artists from the past I’ve mentioned, Picasso, Man Ray, Magritte, Dali and contemporary artists such as the technology hungry David Hockney, would all and have been excited about the possibility of new digital technologies. I’m certain Picasso would have had a laptop in his studio along with his easel. Artists tend to avidly embrace any new medium that offers a new way of creating images and seeing the world in a new light. It’s the mind, the thought, the ideas that count, whatever the medium or media.
When photography first appeared critics thought it would spell the death of painting, but artists were freed from the tyranny of pure representation and made incredible leaps with movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Surrealism. conversely photography became seen as an art form and an important tool for artists. I find working on a laptop and experimenting and playing with various software and creative programs as satisfying and fulfilling as the traditional print mediums of etching, lithography and silk screen printing.

The Third Man, Image Copyright Patrick Snape

Being an artist is a bit like being Doctor Who; a constant cycle of regeneration, becoming a new version of yourself but retaining memories and mannerisms of the former self. Regardless of the sweeping and startling changes of style we see in Picasso’s massive output (the ultimate ‘regenerator’ and who in printmaking and sculpture ferociously embraced new technologies and techniques) his work is always identifiable as being the work of Pablo Picasso.
I can’t imagine not ever making another etching or drawing with pencil on paper, but right now digital art is my favoured medium.

Does your art have a political message?

The challenge I gave myself with both my songwriting and visual art has been to make works that have a social context and reflect on the times I live in, but at the same time are not overtly political in the sense that I’m telling people how to think or what party to vote! I see myself as part of a lineage of artists and musicians who combine the political and personal. As I pointed out earlier the Hollywood Visions in Newcastle do carry a social and cultural message; a fusion of the past and present rather than just nostalgic evocations of the past.

Details of how to visit this exhibition are found below.

Thank you to Patrick Snape for taking the time to answer my questions, and for allowing me to post a taster of his up-coming exhibition. 

Hollywood Visions in Newcastle brings together classic photography with contemporary digital technology to create a parallel world of urban cityscapes populated by ethereal images from the heyday of Hollywood:

The Exhibition begins on Thursday 21 November 2013 and runs until March 2014 at the Tyneside Coffee Rooms in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Image Copyright Google maps

Find out more about the art and music of Patrick Snape

https://www.facebook.com/snapemedia
https://soundcloud.com/the-dead-peasants
https://myspace.com/patricksnape/music/songs

Guilty Pleasures: a photographic love affair with trees

Tags

English woodland, Northumberland, photography, scottish borders, studeley royal park, Trees, Woodland

Trees in the Hall Grounds, Wallsend, Oct 2013

I’m not sure why I class this as a guilty pleasure, perhaps it’s because despite the fact that I am often completely enraptured with the trees that I come across, I am woefully ignorant of their species, their folk-lore and their medicinal uses!  I really can’t tell my Beech from my Sycamore, my Ash from my birch tree.  fortunately the trees don’t seem to mind too much and still pose for my pictures.

The other reason that it is a guilty pleasure is because, as anyone who has ever hiked with me will know, I am always being enticed off the beaten track to snap some amazing tree,  then having to scramble to catch up with everyone.

Despite my arboreal ignorance, I believe that trees have a presence, a distinct personality and a deep connection with the universe and that as humans we should respect and protect the trees in our environment.  Although we may not understand their words, if you listen hard you can their song on every whispered breeze.

Here are some of the pictures I have taken over the past few years – mainly in England and Scotland, but also overseas.

Crow Bank, Wallsend, Oct 2013

Near Ripon, Nov 2013

Near Ripon, Nov 2013

Near Ripon, Nov 2013

Studley Royal Park, Nov 2013 (am I just imagining it or does this tree have a slightly phallic bulge?)

Autumn colours, Studley Royal Park, Nov 2013

Twilight in Studley Royal park, Nov 2013

Northumberland, Dec 2011

Blanchland Dec, 2011

Robin with attitude, Winter, Wallington in Northumberland 2012

Keilder, winter 2010

Blanchland, Winter 2010

Holly around an old church Nr Blanchland, Winter 2010

Cedar of Lebanon at Highgate Cemetery, Feb 2010

Silver Birches, Patterdale, Lake District, Feb 2008

Border Abbey’s Way April 2009

Border Abbeys Walk, Eildon Hills in the distance, April 2009

River Tweed, Border Abbey’s Way, April 2009

The Robin Hood ‘Prince of Thieves’ tree, Hadrian’s Wall, 2007

Windblasted tree on Hadrian’s Wall, 2007

The Hares hip bones, Rising Sun Nature Park, Early Summer 2013

Early Summer, 2013

Scottish Borders, July 2013

Bushbury, West Midlands, High Summer 2005

The Vendee Region France, June 2008

Vendee, France, June 2008

Cuba, September 2010

Havana, Cuba, September 2010

Volubilis, Morocco, May 2009

Nile Desert and Trees, Egypt 2009

Nile Trees, Egypt 2009

Dream Tree, Belsay Hall Exhibition, Northumberland

The Greenman, Cragside, Northumberland

If you want to help to protect native woodlands you can find out more about projects in the UK on the Woodland Trust’s website.

A Whiff of Brimstone: the Original Hell-fire Club

Tags

Bishop Wake, blasphemy, Duke of Wharton, eighteenth century history, England, George I, Georgian clubs, hell fire, Hell-fire Club, hellfire, jacobites, Lucy Loftus, Philip, satanism, secret societies

London 1721:  The King uncovers Satanism in High Society

On the 28 April 1721 the London Gazette reported on the Governments attempts to quash the nefarious activities of a group of young persons, both men and women, drawn from the cream of society, whose outrageously irreligious behaviour was thought to be causing moral anarchy and endangering the very fabric of society.  Although not named directly, the main target of the King and the government’s legislation was the notorious Hell-Fire Club.

His Majesty have received Information, which gives great Reason to suspect that there have lately been and still are, in and about the Cities of London and Westminster, certain scandalous Clubs or Societies of young Persons who meet together, and in the most impious and blasphemous Manner insult the most sacred Principles of Holy Religion, affront Almighty God himself, and corrupt the Minds and Morals of one another;

London Gazette, 28th April 1721

A Tabloid Drama unfolds

As soon as the activities of the Clubs became public knowledge, moral panic and prurient interest walked hand in hand and the flames of public interest were fanned enthusiastically by the press.  The early eighteenth century was a time of coffee houses and clubs where newspapers were widely circulated, read and re-read, often read out loud to those who could not themselves read.  The news that there was a blasphemous secret society or club, right in the heart of London’s high society was a sensation.  People clammered for details of the clubs membership and activities.  It was even rumoured that one of the Queen’s Ladies in Waiting was a member – leading King George I to order an investigation of his own household.

The Club was alleged to have met in Westminster, Conduit Street and Somerset House and the illustration below published in 1721 in a pamphlet entitled ‘The Hellfire Club: kept by a society of Blasphemers’ shows an imagined meeting of the Somerset House Hellfire club.

‘The diabolical maskquerade, or the dragons-feast as acted by the Hell-Fire-Club, at Somerset House in the Strand’. 1721 © Trustees of the British Museum

According to Appleby’s Journal, reporting after the club had come to public attention, the Hellfire club comprised about 40 persons of whom, scandalously, 15 were ladies of quality.  Appleby’s also reported that members routinely dressed up as Biblical characters, took the names of patriarchs and sought to mock Christianity.  They imbibed ‘Hellfire punch’ and dined on Holy Ghost Pie (an imitation host made with angelic root), Devils Loins and Breast of Venus. It was also claimed that if a member died they became the club’s ‘Ambassador in Hell’.  One can almost imagine Appleby’s Journal as the ‘Daily Mail’ of its day – with stolidly respectable readers being at once shocked, outraged and titillated by these antics.

A Touch of Brimstone, Avengers, 1966, produced by Brian Clemens and Julian Wintle

From Blasphemy to Satanism

The most damning accusation levelled at the Hellfire club was of mocking the Trinity: nibbling on Holy Ghost Pie while dressed as a patriarch and fornicating with the Lady Hellfire was pretty much guaranteed to get the Establishment frothing at the mouth…. Mists Weekly Journal from 20th February 1720 referred to the Hellfire club as having:

“transcendent Malignity: deriding the forms of Religion as a Trifle.  By a natural Progression they turn to Substance; with Lucifer they fly at Divinity”  concluding that “Ladies shield their faces because of the whiff of brimstone when they pass” (Lord p52)

Baphomet, Public Domain image via Wikimedia

Actual reliable evidence about the activities of the club is extremely scarce, as Evelyn Lord points out in her book ‘The Hell-Fire Clubs: Sex, Satanism and Secret Societies’. Most of the alleged activities reported above appeared in Journals well after the club’s existence was exposed.  And, even in their lurid and oh so very tabloid accounts, evidence of actual Devil Worship seems limited to toasting the devil and generally misbehaving.  So why then, did the Hell-fire club(s) gain a reputation for Satanic practices?

The answer seems to lie in the mind of Bishop Wake the Bishop helped to draft the Bill against the Hell-fire club(s).  His main aim was to uphold Anglican Orthodoxy and the settlement of 1688 against the rise of Jacobitism and the perceived Catholic threat following the failed Jacobite uprising in 1715.  He considered that anyone denying the Trinity must ipso-facto be in league with the Devil.  Hence the Hell-fire Club’s activities fell by default into the category of not only blasphemy, but effectively Satanism as well.

But was there more to the suppression of the Hell-fire club than upholding the state religion and protecting the morals of the nation?  It would seem so…

The man behind the Diabolical Maskquerade

Philip, The 1st Duke of Wharton, public domain image via Wikipedia

Enter Philip, Duke of Wharton.  Brilliant, charming, charismatic, rebellious, debauched, rake-hell and libertine extraordinaire.  The dyspeptic Alexander Pope described him as: “The scorn and wonder of our days” (Cruikshank p390)

Philip was born in 1698 the grandson of a Puritan (!), son of the author of the Lillibularo and Lucy Loftus (a lady whose beauty had been the toast of the famous Kit Cat Club).

Philip was given a vigorous education, ranging from maths to metaphysics, the classics to Shakespeare.  He also excelled at languages and was a talented mimic.  Destined for a fast-track career as a statesman, his family were horrified when at 17 he eloped with the daughter of a penniless Major-General.  It was rumoured that his father was so distraught that the marriage could not be annulled that he died only weeks later.  No doubt a sad event, but one that left the wild-child heir free of paternal control.

In order to reign in the wayward heir, he was packed off by his trustees on a Grand Tour of the continent.  Not the usual fun places like France and Italy where a good time could definitely be had; but to the austerely protestant Holland, Hanover and Geneva.  However this dull itinerary did not suit the wayward Duke, he ditched his tutors in Geneva in 1716 and headed directly for the epi-centre of sophistication and the heart of the Jacobite court in exile – Paris.  Here an anecdote relating to his meeting with a Jacobite exile named Gwynne, living in a Parisian garret, which reveals his already outrageous personality:

“Philip said he hoped the stairs didn’t lead up to heaven, because if they did he would go down again, and invite Gwynne to join him in Hell, where he was to be the Devil’s lord of the bed-chamber”  (Ashe p52)

After various other brushes with the Jacobite court in exile, including a meeting with the Old Pretender himself, Philip returned via Ireland to England.

Perhaps concerned by this prominent figure’s Jacobite exploits, George I gave Philip a Dukedom in 1718. If he hoped it would cement his loyalty, George was wrong.  Taking up his role as statesman Wharton soon became a vociferous critic of Robert Walpole, the de-facto Prime Minister of England and representative of Whig party interests.  In his opposition to Walpole and the Whig parties hold over politics Geoffrey Ashe, in his book ‘The Hell-Fire Clubs’, credits Philip with political importance as being the first to see opposition to the Whig ‘stranglehold’ on eighteenth century politics and patronage as crucial.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu by Jonathan Richardson the Younger public domain , via Wikimedia

Given his unconventional and rebellious nature it is unsurprising that Philip was the founding member and creator of the original Hell-fire club.  As noted above Clubs were all the rage in the very sociable eighteenth century – and not all of them were as respectable as the Kit Cat Club. In 1712 the Mohocks, a gang of gentlemen, terrorised London with their violent antics; and Daniel Defoe wrote of “a pagan circle, near Old Charing, where God was owned, sworn by, imprecated, blasphemed, and denied all in one breath”. (Lord p47). 

Wharton appears to have started the Hell-fire Club at sometime in 1720.  Evelyn Lord notes that his son died at about the same time, Wharton had left his wife and began associating with the unpleasantly nick-named ‘Rape Master General’: Colonel Charteris.  Perhaps the two of them dreamt up the Hellfire Club as the ultimate rebellion against the solidly mercantile respectability promoted by Georgian Society. 

Members were said to include Viscount Hillsborough and Sir Edmund O’Brien.  It was rumoured the famous Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was also a member. Evelyn Lord comments that Lady Mary first met and became friends with Wharton when he was living in Twickenham in 1722 – a year after the club folded.  Lady Mary appears to have written about a later club called the Schemers ( an orgiastic club set up by Lord Hillsborough) and this reference has become conflated with that of the Hellfire club. Her evident friendship with the scandalous duke added fuel to the fire and her name became linked to the Hellfire club.  (Lord p58).

Sedition and Secret Societies

The reasons that the Government feared clubs such as the Hell-fire club was that they could be hot-beds of sedition.  England in the first quarter of the eighteenth century wasn’t the bucolic fantasy of Fielding’s Tom Jones. Ever since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the protestant William of Orange had supplanted the Catholic James II, the Anglican’s had been edgy.

The Old Pretender Lands in Scotland, 1715. Public Domain via Wikimedia

The Government needed a tame clergy but not one with pretensions to Catholic style priestly interventions with the divine.  Hence the Convocation of the Church of England (who favoured this  view) was suspended in 1717.  The remaining clergy became pluralistic ‘yes-men’.  Nevertheless maintaining the illusion of their moral authority was still important to the Establishment – especially after the failed Jacobite rebellion of 1715.  Add to this the disastrous South Sea Bubble Speculation that bankrupted everyone from Dukes to housemaids and the stability of early Georgian Society comes seriously into question.  Many people genuinely believed that the nation was being punished by God – so in the popular mind having a society of blaspheming Devil Worshipper’s at large in the capital might have been seen as a symptom of the declining morals of the nation and further anger God.

Neither could the government risk having possibly seditious secret societies such as the Hell-fire Club, run by a suspected Jacobite sympathiser, remain unchecked as they felt it could risk political instability and moral anarchy.  Add to this the personal enmity between Wharton and Walpole (who was the prime mover behind the Act) and it becomes clear that the Hell-fire Club’s days were numbered.

Spawn of Hell-fire

The Club, which had run for less than a year, was finished by 1721.  Banned by an Act of Parliament – although nobody was ever prosecuted.  The Duke of Wharton eventually left England and died in debt at the age of only 33 after a characteristically eventful exile.  He was eventually immortalised in fiction as the anti-hero Lovelace in Samuel Richardson’s novel ‘Clarissa Harlowe’.

The Hellfire club however, did not disappear from memory.  As well as the Grub Street Hacks who did much to create its infamy, many respectable persons wrote of it in their memoirs:  Mrs Delaney, William Whiston and others.  And it spawned many other Hellfire groups – particularly in Ireland (Wharton had spent some time in Ireland – even charming the notoriously misanthropic Dean Swift, of Gulliver’s Travels fame).  Many of those Irish clubs had much more claim to a Satanic reputation than Wharton’s club of blasphemers.

One final legacy left by the original Hellfire Club was that Wharton, in his will bequeathed what was left of his estate to the Lord Treasurer, one George Doddington.  ‘Bubb’ Doddington would later become infamous due to his association with perhaps the most famous Hell-fire club of all: The Monks of Medmenham.  But that is a tale for another day!

Sources

Ashe, Geoffrey, 2005, The Hell-Fire Clubs, Sutton
Cruikshank, Dan, 2010, The Secret History of Georgian London, Windmill
Lord, Evelyn, The Hell-Fire Clubs: Sex, Satanism and Secret Societies, 2008, Yale