Dr Robin Douglas
@robincdouglas.bsky.social
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📥 835
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Historian of religions, paganism and esotericism. Website:
https://www.robindouglas.org
New book from me out later this year! "THE PAGAN REVIVAL: The Roots of Modern British Paganism, 1700-1950" A unique history of the pagan revival told through analysis of contemporary literary, scholarly and journalistic texts.
www.equinoxpub.com/projects/pag...
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The Pagan Revival | Equinox Publishing
<i>Forthcoming, 2026</i><br><br> This book is a unique documentary history of the religious tradition known as modern Paganism, covering the period from the eighteenth century to 1950. Through the med...
https://www.equinoxpub.com/projects/pagan-revival
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"Astrologers came from the East" A piece for Epiphany on the mysterious Magi in St Matthew's Gospel. Who were they? What do the gifts mean? Is the story true?
robindouglas.org/2026/01/05/a...
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Astrologers came from the east
“When Jesus had been born in Bethlehem in Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, magoi arrived in Jerusalem from the east….” The magoi – the ‘kings’, or ‘wise men’…
https://robindouglas.org/2026/01/05/astrologers-came-from-the-east/
2 days ago
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"Astrologers came from the East" A piece for Epiphany on the mysterious Magi in St Matthew's Gospel. Who were they? What do the gifts mean? Is the story true?
robindouglas.org/2026/01/05/a...
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Astrologers came from the east
“When Jesus had been born in Bethlehem in Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, magoi arrived in Jerusalem from the east….” The magoi – the ‘kings’, or ‘wise men’…
https://robindouglas.org/2026/01/05/astrologers-came-from-the-east/
2 days ago
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Dr Robin Douglas
𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝
15 days ago
🎵 The party's on The spirit's up We're here tonight And that's enough Simply having a
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Joel S.
20 days ago
From a focus group of Gen Z Republicans. (
www.city-journal.org/article/manh...
)
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US army chaplains are insufficiently redpilled. I assume "tossing" must mean something different in American.
20 days ago
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will pooley
22 days ago
when a reviewer asks you to cite their work in your revised submission and so you grudgingly insert a footnote but in no way discuss their ideas in your work, so that it’s there and you can’t be dinged for ignoring it, but also you did nothing to address it… this is called a “sightation”
add a skeleton here at some point
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SPIRITUALISM AND TWO CLASSICAL SCHOLARS Or, how an ancient Greek philosopher appeared to a South African academic and the bestselling English translation of the Aeneid was assisted by Virgil's ghost.
robindouglas.org/2025/12/16/s...
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Spiritualism and two classical scholars
Asking Virgil’s ghost for advice Over the years, a number of scholars of classics have had an interest in the paranormal. Perhaps the best-known is E. R. Dodds (1893-1979), who is the only pe…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/12/16/spiritualism-and-two-classical-scholars/
22 days ago
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Spencer Sunshine
25 days ago
just a reminder that antisemitism has been a part of Western culture for over a millennia and has a powerful influence on culture, social life, and politics. as with other forms of oppression, like misogyny and racism, open violence is just an explicit expression of more widespread attitudes.
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On John Fransham (1730-1810), who seems to have been the first modern pagan revivalist: "he used to walk about with a cat under his arm, which he affirmed possessed a soul, and that cats would be saved rather than human beings"
25 days ago
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Board of Deputies of British Jews
25 days ago
We are devastated to hear reports of a shooting attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, with multiple fatalities at a Jewish Hanukkah event. The scourges of terrorism and antisemitism are shared, international challenges and need concerted and determined action to defeat them.
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🚨 New on my Substack THE ANTICHRIST - A Biblical Puzzle A piece on one of the most enigmatic and notorious characters in Christian thought.
religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-antich...
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The Antichrist
A Biblical puzzle
https://religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-antichrist
27 days ago
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🚨 New on my Substack THE ANTICHRIST - A Biblical Puzzle A piece on one of the most enigmatic and notorious characters in Christian thought.
religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-antich...
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The Antichrist
A Biblical puzzle
https://religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-antichrist
27 days ago
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Sardonicus
29 days ago
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.' Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
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ICYMI When did Britain stop being Christian? Can we put a date on the end of Britain as a Christian country?
robindouglas.org/2025/12/09/w...
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When did Britain stop being Christian?
Originally posted on my Substack on 29 November 2024. It is sometimes assumed that Christianity in the West decisively gave way to secularism in the 1960s. The eminent historian of religion Francis…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/12/09/when-did-britain-stop-being-christian/
about 1 month ago
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Jacob Gifford Head
about 1 month ago
Very interesting. Not entirely convinced I accept the premise! Whilst the UK may not be a particularly religious country, I think it is still a very Christian country. The framing of society is still very Christian: most of the population are currently observing Advent; the two big festivals are ...
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ICYMI When did Britain stop being Christian? Can we put a date on the end of Britain as a Christian country?
robindouglas.org/2025/12/09/w...
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When did Britain stop being Christian?
Originally posted on my Substack on 29 November 2024. It is sometimes assumed that Christianity in the West decisively gave way to secularism in the 1960s. The eminent historian of religion Francis…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/12/09/when-did-britain-stop-being-christian/
about 1 month ago
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Silvio Vannini
about 1 month ago
There remains the problem, in which language was Adam naming the animals? Did he say "חָתוּל", or "cat", or "gatto", or "Katze", or αἴλουρος, or "catus"?🤔 No, not catus, as we needed Saint Jerome to have it translated into Latin However, what was wrong with this Bull guy? Nothing better to think of?🙄
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Adam in the Garden of Eden is said to have named all the animals for the first time. Bishop George Bull was enormously impressed with this feat and thought that it could only have been executed with God's help.
about 1 month ago
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Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Rev. Gareth Bennett. An Anglican scandal and tragedy from the 1980s.
robindouglas.org/2025/09/08/t...
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The Crockford’s Preface – Remembering an Anglican tragedy
Originally posted on 5 December 2024. Today is the 37th anniversary of the death of Rev. Dr Gareth Bennett. He was 58. He took his own life as the result of a tragic and unnecessary scandal. Bizarr…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/09/08/the-crockfords-preface-remembering-an-anglican-tragedy/
about 1 month ago
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Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Rev. Gareth Bennett. An Anglican scandal and tragedy from the 1980s.
robindouglas.org/2025/09/08/t...
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The Crockford’s Preface – Remembering an Anglican tragedy
Originally posted on 5 December 2024. Today is the 37th anniversary of the death of Rev. Dr Gareth Bennett. He was 58. He took his own life as the result of a tragic and unnecessary scandal. Bizarr…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/09/08/the-crockfords-preface-remembering-an-anglican-tragedy/
about 1 month ago
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Dr Robin Douglas
Dan Kaszeta FRHistS
about 1 month ago
Muscular Christianity. “Wear some headphones, kid. And put your shoes back on”
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A piece on apocalyptic writings - the genre in which people imagine what the end of the world will look like. A time of crisis and degeneracy ends with the intervention of God and a final judgment, with rewards and punishments. These ideas have secular equivalents too....
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Mihnea
about 1 month ago
Romanians are the sons of Rome. The blood of Trajan is in our veins. Our brothers, our sisters, our cousins are hair gelled grifters in the slums of Napoli. The Eternal Mafiosi of Calabria and Sicily So why tf are we obsessed with PhD/CV minutia like we are Germanics loons from the Rhine?
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"The Pope who Saw Demons in the Vatican" The last Pope Leo - 13, not 14 - saw a demonic vision one day, in the late nineteenth century. There is a fascinating story behind how this vision passed into Catholic folklore and what uses it was put to. See more here:
robindouglas.org/2025/11/27/t...
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The pope who saw demons in the Vatican
A piece of Catholic folklore This article examines the history of a piece of Catholic folklore – the story that Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) saw a vision of demons one morning in the Vatican. It…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/11/27/the-pope-who-saw-demons-in-the-vatican/
about 1 month ago
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"The Pope who Saw Demons in the Vatican" The last Pope Leo - 13, not 14 - saw a demonic vision one day, in the late nineteenth century. There is a fascinating story behind how this vision passed into Catholic folklore and what uses it was put to. See more here:
robindouglas.org/2025/11/27/t...
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The pope who saw demons in the Vatican
A piece of Catholic folklore This article examines the history of a piece of Catholic folklore – the story that Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) saw a vision of demons one morning in the Vatican. It…
https://robindouglas.org/2025/11/27/the-pope-who-saw-demons-in-the-vatican/
about 1 month ago
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Dr Robin Douglas
Thorn Mooney
about 1 month ago
Since we’re talking about books and money, I’ll also talk specifically to new occult authors, because I watch new people go through this every single season: your first book might change your life, but almost surely not in the way you think.
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Anna Milon
about 1 month ago
Sherlock the cat a big fan of
@robincdouglas.bsky.social
&
@drfrancisyoung.bsky.social
's 'Paganism Persisting'
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"If John Henry Newman had been born in 1851 rather than 1801, he would have joined the Golden Dawn. If he had been born in 1881, he would have joined the OTO." Discuss.
about 2 months ago
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It's a good book.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Tim Onion
about 2 months ago
They’re saying from each according to his ability — and I have the best ability, a soldier came up to me and told me, tears in his eyes, she said “you saved America, sir,” she said, cold day, she had these rosy cheeks, unlike Rosie O’Donnell, no ability — to each, to each according to his needs.
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Dr Robin Douglas
🚨 New on my Substack! THE END OF THE WORLD A piece on the weird world of apocalyptic literature People really like to imagine how the world will end
religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-end-of...
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The end of the world
The strange genre of apocalyptic literature
https://religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-world
about 2 months ago
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🚨 New on my Substack! THE END OF THE WORLD A piece on the weird world of apocalyptic literature People really like to imagine how the world will end
religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-end-of...
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The end of the world
The strange genre of apocalyptic literature
https://religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-world
about 2 months ago
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Richard Irvine
about 2 months ago
For those interested in how Catholic Social Teaching is responding to AI, this in-passing remark of Pope Leo XIV when receiving an audience of actors and film producers is quite striking: "The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what 'works', but art opens up what is possible."
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Pope Leo XIV Talks Movies To A-List Crowd At Vatican: Read His Speech
Pope Leo XIV Talks Movies To A-List Crowd At Vatican: Read His Speech
https://deadline.com/2025/11/pope-leo-xiv-cinema-speech-a-list-crowd-read-his-speech-1236618389/
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Dr Robin Douglas
Dr Francis Young
about 2 months ago
This has to be the funniest
@churchtimes.bsky.social
headline of the year, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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1763 - an amusingly hyperbolic denunciation of Methodism I have always considered Methodism, taken in the most favourable Light, as the most destructive and dangerous System, to Government and Society, that ever was established:
about 2 months ago
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Zach Everson
about 2 months ago
“Housing shortage – Jews to blame," letter sticker, German Reich, 1938
zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context
add a skeleton here at some point
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"‘Demonic’ Wind in the Willows jumper banned from Westminster Abbey: Woman told to remove or cover up garment featuring 1908 illustration of Pan lest it offend worshippers"
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
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‘Demonic’ Wind in the Willows jumper banned from Westminster Abbey
Woman told to remove or cover up garment featuring 1908 illustration of Pan lest it offend worshippers
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/14/demonic-wind-in-the-willows-jumper-banned-from-westminster-abbey
about 2 months ago
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Jeff Sharlet
about 2 months ago
Way back in '004
@petermanseau.bsky.social
& I published a book called Killing the Buddha, for chapter of which we stayed w/ a military coven at a Pagan gathering. It was great. Paganism then was fastest growing affiliation. Good work, Pagans! Bonus points for freaking out Close-Shave Pete.
add a skeleton here at some point
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ICYMI "In order to be saved you must be born again", said the pagan god. I've produced a new translation of Corpus Hermeticum XIII, a text which discusses a transcendent experience of rebirth in an ancient Graeco-Egyptian context. Any comments are welcome....
www.academia.edu/127827312/Co...
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Corpus Hermeticum XIII - A new translation
Corpus Hermeticum XIII - A new translation
https://www.academia.edu/127827312/Corpus_Hermeticum_XIII_A_new_translation
about 2 months ago
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Rhys Kaminski-Jones
about 2 months ago
Bond is, in fact, the sovereignty goddess of Britain, existing simultaneously as youthful and crone, wooed by successive unsuitable temporary partners until the true sovereign (Judy Dench) reveals herself
add a skeleton here at some point
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BeijingPalmer
about 2 months ago
It is genuinely hard for most people to grasp how poor the past was.
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Edward w
about 2 months ago
iirc Robert van Gulik noted that in Chinese culture- and sex manuals- kissing was considered a sexual act, only to be done in private. This led europeans to conclude the Chinese never kissed, and the Chinese to conclude all European women were prostitutes.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Today in 1965, the first British law against racial discrimination was enacted. I've written about what the parliamentary debates tell us about how little we've come in the intervening 60 years. "The First Race Relations Act"
pagesfromahistoriansnotebook.substack.com/p/the-first-...
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The first Race Relations Act
How little has changed since 1965
https://pagesfromahistoriansnotebook.substack.com/p/the-first-race-relations-act
2 months ago
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In 1666, Pope Alexander VII affirmed that it is a mortal sin to kiss someone "for reason of the carnal and sensual pleasure which arises from the kiss". (Reference: Denzinger, 1140)
2 months ago
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Silvio Vannini
2 months ago
My 1st trip to London was in Dec.'79, I was 19: coming from Rome, the presence of people from many countries and 'races' was something that really struck me & my friends Funny fact: one night we decided to go to a disco, following advice of a guide booklet which turned out to be out of date! 1 ->
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Today in 1965, the first British law against racial discrimination was enacted. I've written about what the parliamentary debates tell us about how little we've come in the intervening 60 years. "The First Race Relations Act"
pagesfromahistoriansnotebook.substack.com/p/the-first-...
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The first Race Relations Act
How little has changed since 1965
https://pagesfromahistoriansnotebook.substack.com/p/the-first-race-relations-act
2 months ago
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Dr Robin Douglas
THE DAY THE BRITISH STATE ABOLISHED HELL Anglicanism is what you get when the English encounter the Catholic doctrines of sin and damnation and think "they can't be talking about us". /1
2 months ago
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THE DAY THE BRITISH STATE ABOLISHED HELL Anglicanism is what you get when the English encounter the Catholic doctrines of sin and damnation and think "they can't be talking about us". /1
2 months ago
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Dr Robin Douglas
BeijingPalmer
2 months ago
ICE won't allow communion to be given in detention centers because demons quail and shiver at the divine presence in the Host.
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