The weird and whacky world of the Victorians

[specul8]

Spirituality

The Victorian age gave rise to many of the things that have become the basis of modern spirituality. Despite the rise of rationalism and science, the age also saw personalities such as Madame Blavatsky, MacGregor Mathersm Aleister Crowley (just about) work their way into the upper levels of society. The esoteric Theosophical Society and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were formed during the Victorian era.

The Society for Psychical Research was also formed during this time, dedicated to "scholarly study of the paranormal".

In an era of gothic fiction and rapid scientific progress, as well as contact with other cultures, it perhaps isn;t surprising that the Victorians sought to make some sense of their world through spirituality.

Victorian and post Victorian occultism is a fav subject of mine . Crazily enough, most modern occultism is still based on it, and the outmoded science occultism was based on back then .

Ahhh ... McGregor Mathers !




Wait, is that Henry Cyril Padget ... <squints> ... no, its Mathers .


Moving over to USA ... how about some Western Tantric 'sex magic' neo-Platonic cowboys ?

" Four time mayor of a Midwestern town, publisher of the American frontier’s only periodical devoted to Plato, Thomas Moore Johnson was also president of the central council of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, a mystery school that taught sex magic "

Thomas Johnson: Platonism Meets Sex Magic on the Prairie

 

[specul8]

That would certainly explain author Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll and his book Alice in Wonderland. During Victorian times, it was possible to visit a apothecary and buy a penny's worth of opium as an over the counter medicine.

Be thankful you never lived in Victorian times. They had some very peculiar reasons for admission to an asylum. Novel reading and fighting fire amongst others. View attachment 19997

A reason for admission is 'false confinement ' ?

I guess they meant false confinement somewhere else, previously ?

 

[specul8]

"Why was it necessary to hold children still for long periods of time when photography could be done quickly, though? "

the exposure time needed to imprint the image on the collodial solution of silver salts was initially nearly half an hour
due to better product preparation and the use of glass plates the process took from 6 to twelve seconds by 1850 depending on the light ,
outside pictures were preferred , there is nearly always more light ,
in a studio it would take longer especially if one wanted a fine detail

the list is a guide for interning women as mentally disturbed

Women ?

'Fell from horse in war ' ?

 

[Warwolf]

The Victorian age was time of great scientific discovery, as well as perhaps a time of spiritual awakening. Men such as MacGregor Mathers and Michael Faraday were (more or less) contemporaries. The discovery of electricity led to the classical sci-fi work Frankenstein. Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhaman.

To the Victorians, the world was an amazing place full of mysteries to be discovered while British power was carried to all parts by the sails of the Royal Navy.

This thread is to discuss the whacky world of the Victorians.

The Victorian Era was 1837 to 1901. Frankenstein was published in 1818 and Carter discovered Tutankhamun in the 1920s.

Even photography was invented before the Victorian Era: the first photo was taken in 1826.

 

[Warwolf]

In 1898 Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild took a carriage pulled by one horse and three zebra to Buckingham Palace, in an attempt to prove that zebras could be domesticated.

There were lots of well-known eccentrics in Victorian Britain. Take Sir Tatton Sykes (1826-1913), for example, who had such a hatred of flowers that if he saw any while out walking he beat them to death with his walking stick. He forbade tenants on his lands from growing flowers in their gardens, telling them to grow cauliflowers instead.

He even refused to leave his home, Sledmere House, even while it was on fire. "I must eat my pudding!", he told his servants.

Sir Tatton used to order his coats in sets of six to eight, all of slightly different sizes, and then wear them on top of one another in layers, like a living Russian doll. Then, when he began to get too warm, he would simply remove one coat at a time and discard it on the ground, relying on local boys to pick them up and bring them back to Sledmere for a small reward. Apparently, he had a similar arrangement with his trousers …

 

[BuckBradley]

The Victorian age was time of great scientific discovery, as well as perhaps a time of spiritual awakening. Men such as MacGregor Mathers and Michael Faraday were (more or less) contemporaries. The discovery of electricity led to the classical sci-fi work Frankenstein. Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhaman.

To the Victorians, the world was an amazing place full of mysteries to be discovered while British power was carried to all parts by the sails of the Royal Navy.

This thread is to discuss the whacky world of the Victorians.

I.Qs have declined since Victorian times. The Victorians wrote MUCH MUCH MUCH better than we do. They were VERY clever. Am I generalizing? Yes.

Oh, and Queen Victoria loved sex and never said "We are not amused" (she herself disclaimed ever saying that).

 

[Linschoten]

The wrote much better because they were brought up on the King James Bible, which is a treasury of fine sonorous prose.

 

[Naomasa298]

The Victorian Era was 1837 to 1901. Frankenstein was published in 1818 and Carter discovered Tutankhamun in the 1920s.

Even photography was invented before the Victorian Era: the first photo was taken in 1826.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread - I *know*. But all of these things were popularised in the Victorian age.

 

[MG1962a]

The Victorians wrote MUCH MUCH MUCH better than we do.

Not really. It is just with the passage of time, the literary cream has risen to the top, and countless trashy dime novels have been forgotten.

 

[Linschoten]

Not really. It is just with the passage of time, the literary cream has risen to the top, and countless trashy dime novels have been forgotten.

That's true, but I know what he means, the letters of relatively uneducated people are often much more eloquent and literate than one would expect from people of comparable origin nowadays (e.g. of common soildiers who took part in the American Civil War or in the Crimean War).