The True
History
of The
Lamp of Thoth®

The recent success of the 'Doom Metal' band 'Lamp of Thoth' has produced many references on the internet. An old interview by the leader of the group in Hellride Music has resulted in a wrong impression being created and statements which require to be corrected.

Simon is reported in Hellride Music as saying:

"We had no name and ................. Around this time I discovered the local legend of The Lamp Of Thoth, and some strange melancholic muse descended upon me. The first song I wrote was You Will Obey, then came Pagan Daze, the idea behind it being a strange old Lord reminiscing about the heathen ceremonies of his youth; Blood on Satan's Claw soon followed...

The Lamp of Thoth was the name of a magazine published by an obscure occult group who operated in Keighley around 1888 (the same year The Golden Dawn set up their Horus temple in nearby Bradford.) They sometimes went by this moniker amongst others, and were made up of some very influential people from in and around the Keighley area.

Only two issues of this magazine were originally published (although other people have published magazines on the occult and used the name) , and in the short space of their existence (or before they went underground), they managed to put the willies up Madame Blavatsky and MacGregor Mathers who urged their followers to stay well away from the teachings of this group. They accused them of ‘sacrificing goats and raising elementals' and their notoriety was sealed in print through a memo sent to Golden Dawn members, and a warning printed in a Theosophist magazine – Crowley would have loved them! "

Simon and his band are well-meaning but this story does not reflect the whole truth. There is enough obscurantism in the occult already so the real history of the name Lamp of Thoth® follows.

• (1) The proper title of the occult order was The Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley.
• (2) Their order journal was a handwritten folio newsletter which was titled The Lamp of Thoth of which there are several copies still extant which we hold.
• (3) The Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley were active in 1870 not 1888. 1888 is the date that the Horus Temple of The Golden Dawn was inaugurated in Bradford therefore the Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley predated that G.D. Temple and it is thought there would have been a cross-over between members.
• (4) As can be seen clearly from their order title they were a freemasonic styled Rosicrucian order and despite the smears of competing groups at the time had nothing whatsoever to do with Satanism or Paganism but specialised in a blend of spiritualism linked to qabbalism as the magazines clearly show.
• (5) The activities of the group can only be gauged by the few copies of the handwritten Lamp of Thoth which are now extant and it is clear that the writer of that first Lamp of Thoth was very knowledgeable about Monotheistic Theurgy. He would no doubt have been appalled at the suggestions by Simon that they were in some way linked with Satanic or Pagan practices.

DARK GOINGS ON IN KEIGHLEY?

There is a misleading statement in the Hellride interview to the effect that 'other' magazines (plural) have used the name Lamp of Thoth.

Since the late 1880s when the Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley disbanded there have been no other Lamp of Thoth® magazines save for our own which is widely known amongst genuine occultists and which was born out of the researches of Frater Marabas who runs The Sorcere's Apprentice Esoteric Suppliers in Leeds. This is so because until we wrote about and publicised the original handwritten Lamp of Thoth and the Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley in the 1980s nobody else knew they existed! (they were originally a secret order and had no branches elsewhere).

Marabas inaugurated the current Lamp of Thoth® (LOT)in the 1980s and twenty six (26) issues were published containing , as you can see from the example copies on this page, some of the most important, crucial and initiated occult information ever to be printed. One of the first things we did was to publish an extract from the original, handwritten Lamp of Thoth concerning the use of a lamp as a magic mirror and made it clear that we were continuing the magical intent and heritage of the original publication. In fact we surpassed it in every instance.

So revealing and daring was the current Lamp of Thoth® Magazine that the establishment set their press-dogs onto us in a failed attempt to suppress the information we were putting out. These were years of crusading when the LOT acted as a cruciable for initiates world-wide and informed and moulded the destinies of many 'occult celebrities' today. All this happened whilst Simon was very young and looking back his reference to the 'dark legend' of the Lamp of Thoth magazine probably refers to our magazine, not the original handwritten copies which were in fact completely innoccuous and non-controversial. Thus there has been confusion.

Nevertheless with the publication of this piece there is now something on the net which goes some way to illuminating the situation and protecting the reputation and very real work of the Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley; unsung heroes of the esoteric rennaissance who, like us, fought tooth and nail to create a climate where musicians and artistes can give vent to artistic expression without being censored.

Webmasters may use this article copyright free providing they include a link back to this page sorcerers-apprentice.co.uk/lotmag.htm

The use of the title 'The Lamp of Thoth' is copyrighted by The Sorcerer's Apprentice and those who breach it without permission will be pursued in litigation.

Ends:

Simon Replies For The Lamp of Thoth Band:

Following the publication of the above notes Simon contacted us with the full background:

I first came across the legend of the Society of Dew and Light in 2006. The first thing that grabbed me was the headline of a piece Marie Campbell had written in her book Curious Tales of Old West Yorkshire. It simply read ‘The Lamp of Thoth.’ I was drawn to these words because they just sounded so powerful, secret and grand at the same time.

When I read on and saw that the piece was about an occult group that had existed in my hometown operating from places I had walked past many times, my fascination grew, because it all seemed to make some kind of bizarre sense.

So when I read that the Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighly had been accused of sacrificing goats and raising elementals I concluded that they must have done. Keighlians are historically hard people and Keighley Occultists would not be afraid of anything; they would always go the extra mile! If the Golden Dawn who spawned the Great Beast was alarmed by them, why wouldn’t they be? It was just another example of the ‘big boys’ trying to come down on Keighley, out of fear of their independence –typical!

This tale grew in my mind and I drew a strange inspiration from the story. In my mind they were a group of affluent Victorian men who controlled the Keighley area from behind the scenes in service to their secret chief, an unknown inter-dimensional entity they had stumbled on in their bizarre rites, whilst battling the magical attacks of rival occult organisations. They were fiercely independent of standard magical procedures and willing to try anything.

And that was the floodgates opened! I wrote song after song based on this idea. They just flowed out of me –I think I wrote about five songs in two weeks at one point.

A new confidence and energy moved me to put all these songs down. I recorded them and sent them off; this act led to the band being formed, signed and performing gigs around England and Europe within the space of six months.

I called the band The Lamp of Thoth because it sounded more metal and more eccentric than The Society of Dew and Light. The band would have an emphasis on Yorkshire mythology and folklore, pagan places and monuments.

At the same time, I was trying to piece together the real story of The Keighley Fathers and revelling in the strange coincidences that this path was throwing up.

At the time of writing the songs, I was at a party and quite by accident, bumped into the author of the book from which I gleaned the tale.

Then I designed the logo of the band. It was an inverted cross set against the Chaos sphere symbol, and in-between the arrows were flowers. I had first seen this on the albums of one of my favourite bands Cirith Ungol. They had used it because of their fascination with Moorcock’s Elric. I wanted to use it because the inverted cross was supposed to symbolise mankind’s fall into matter; the symbol was the chaos which ensued from this union and the flower's beauty which was the product of it.

Later I found out that in the seventies the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Leeds had begun to reinstate West Yorkshire as a focal point for the occult tradition once again and that the birth of Chaos Magick was closely connected with the S.A. and the Lamp of Thoth itself.

In the 1980’s the S.A. began to publicise the original handwritten folios of ‘The Lamp of Thoth’ periodical that The Rosicrucian Fathers of Keighley had originally issued, in the process revealing the story of the order to a public who would have otherwise never known they had existed.

They made it clear that they were continuing the magical intent and heritage of the original publication, and established themselves and the magazine as a world renowned centre for occult information and learning, surviving the inevitable attacks of the establishment which had put an end to the first Lamp of Thoth, and continuing their legacy to this day.

So there is alot in this story, especially one as potent as the history of The Lamp of Thoth. There is inspiration and imagination, but there is also a very real truth and legacy. I feel a continuity and a kinship with all these pioneers, as people trying to go their own way to create something unique in the face of apathy, fear, and the mundane conformity that threatens all our lives, and has done since time immemorial, and I am proud that such comittment and enlightenment is to be found in West Yorkhire. The Lamp burns ever on!

Over the years the S.A.'s magnanimous and open attitude to the dissemination of knowledge has become well known and I am grateful for them agreeing for us to continue to use The Lamp of Thoth for our band.

For the history of the original society, and for reputable expertise on all aspects of the occult visit sorcerers-apprentice.co.uk/lotmag.htm

LOT AGAIN!

The legendary Lamp of Thoth Magazine®. So famous and genuinely initiated that the Establishment and their agents in the media have campaigned to discredit it for 20 long years.  A mine of insider occult information of practical value to beginners and advanced seekers into Qabbalism, Mysticism, Thelema, Paganism, Wicca, Chaos Magick, Satanism Sorcery and the Sinister. Read the Back issues of a magazine written by famous occultists for initiates and which helped form the modern occult revival. Peer darkly through a unique window on the occult world. These facsimile issues are historical documents from a unique time when genuine occult teaching was flowing like superheated steam. The Lamp of Thoth®; we believe, the only occult magazine that tells it like it really is. Choose either or both back copies below and see for yourself.

Now in Cyberbook Form! Download Instantly Today At A Saving. You can be reading your chosen LOT within minutes.

LAMP OF THOTH® 24 (Vol:IV No.6) THE SUPPRESSION OF OCCULTISM (Chris Bray) PANDORA'S BOX readers' letters page GOLEM'S GOSSIP - humorous insider info on the occult scene. MIND CONTROL & 1984 (Fra Marabas) ATHENE & TRANSCENDENTAL ASTROLOGY (K Fairgrieve) THE EVIL EYE (M J Kelly) THE S.A.F.F. RESEARCH LIBRARY MANES XEROXUM: The Ghost in the Machine (Rupert Forsyth) BRAIN WASHING (Chris Bray) OLD SOULS, PAST LIVES & REINCARNATION (Mike Jamieson) WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO WITCHES? The soft underbelly of paganism by Meriem Clay-Eggerton KNOW YOUR RIGHTS & HOW THEY AFFECT YOU (M Morrisroe) SUPERSTITION VERSUS SUPERNATURE (Martin Keane) TONY RHODES INTERVIEWS CHRIS BRAY about the firebombing and the campaign against the S.A. MAGIC A REFUGE FOR FAILURES? Hilary Hayes investigates a working \ definition of magic. HYPNOSIS IN MAGIC - David North) THE SUPPRESSION OF KNOWLEDGE The Big Secrets the establishment kept under wraps - Michael Roll LAUREL & HARDY SATANISM - 'That's Another Fine Mess You Got Me Into: '. ..John Freedom reveals the truth about the part the Temple of Set played in the promotion of the Satanic Ritual Abuse Myth A CONCISE ANATOMY OF OCCULTISM by Pete Carroll praemonstrator of the Illuminates of Thanateros. AUNT SALLY occult problem page, CONTACT ADVERTISEMENTS and lots more.... LOT24 NOW AVAILABLE FOR INSTANT DOWNLOAD Worldwide Price to Download The Red LOT (LOT24) is £6.95: [This magazine is 60 pages long] [Please Note: If you are ordering from outside the U.K. the total of your order will be converted from British pounds into your home currency (e.g. U.S. dollars, Canadian Dollars, Yen, Euro, etc.) during checkout. {conversion rate guide}] DOWNLOADING IS EASY! Click on the Add Cyberbook To Basket button above to pay with your card and download straightaway after you pay (takes a minute or two to download), then just click on the file to open up and print out a copy or read it at your leisure on your computer screen. The Price is normally £9.97 but you can download your Cyberbook Version for just £6.97 each. Ideal for overseas clients - you don't have to pay extra for airmail and no waiting for delivery, but cyberbooks are also useful for UK residents in a rush or who don't want anything sent through the post to their address. Download guaranteed successful and virus free. Download right now in the background whilst you surf OR use the link given when you buy which is active for 24 hours for you to download at your leisure later on. Readable File guaranteed - even if the worst happens and your dog pulls your computer cord during download you can go back again and use the link as many times as you like. Why we will even replace your cyberbook if you fail to take a backup and accidentally erase the original file! These are uncensored facsimilie editions so are exactly the same as when first published. Get your's Now!