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Occultism At Oxford

James_H

James_H

And I like to roam the land
Joined
May 18, 2002
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I was born and grew up in Oxford myself but I'm drawing a blank on this one. Posting on behalf of a friend who says:

... Do you know any books or resources on occultism and secret societies in Oxford during 19th and 20th century? Trying to find confirm whether a certain alleged event actually happened. ...

... specific thing I was trying to find out about was an alleged Black Mass in the ruins of Godstow Nunnery sometime in the 30s that the police got called about - of course by ‘Black Mass’ it was probably a joke thing one of this societies were doing ...

Anyone got any leads on either general late
19th/early 20th C occult societies at Oxford or this specific and elusive incident?

PS godstow nunnery is the spookiest place I've ever been to in my whole life, personally.
 
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Very interesting, will do some digging. The place is something of an obscure occult hot spot. I know someone who did some work there many years ago. Will post if I find any historical info.
 
There is an Oxford branch of the Golden Dawn which I believe is still operational however I don’t know it’s history or how long it has been in existence. And of course the GD didn’t practice the Black Mass.

I can’t immediately recall if Crowley was an Oxford or Cambridge man, but he would have been well gone by the thirties.
 
Tempest63 said:
There is an Oxford branch of the Golden Dawn which I believe is still operational however I don’t know it’s history or how long it has been in existence. And of course the GD didn’t practice the Black Mass.

I can’t immediately recall if Crowley was an Oxford or Cambridge man, but he would have been well gone by the thirties.
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Yeah AC started at Cambridge age 20 in 1895.

On another note I think Andrew Collins would be the man to ask if anyone can contact him, I think he did some of his Psychic Questing stuff there. Will have to double check though.
 
Witchcraft and Black Magic by Montague Summers talks about hell fire clubs and satanists at Oxford, and briefly mentions a black mass at Godstow. But he doesn't seem to say how he knows about it.
 
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