Hiram Erastus Butler (1841-1916) was an American born in Pennsylvania. Initially
he worked as logger who chopped off a few fingers in
his work. He then
claimed to have spent 14 years as a hermit before appearing in Boston in the
1880s as the pseudonyms: Adhy-Apaka, alias the Hellenic Ethnomedon, Enphoron, alias the Greco-Tibetan, Ens-movens, Om Mane Padmi Aum.
In 1887 Butler sought to impart a more advanced and welcoming teaching
than the Theosophists, he associated with a charlatan named Eli Ohmart (aka
Vidya-Nyaika) who pretending to be a great initiate, and together they founded
an "Esoteric Society" named GNKR which are the initials of "The
Genii of Nations, Knowledges, and Religions".
This organization pretending to teach "all the mysteries, and among others, the power of acquiring vast wealth," but it ended up failing
under accusations from the press and Theosophists.
But this scandal also tarnished the reputation of the Theosophical
Society because Butler pretended to have been a Theosophist and he used
theosophical concepts.
William Judge who was the president of the American section affirmed
that examining the archives, he discovered that Butler had never belonged to
the Theosophical Society, but despite this, a part of the public did not pay
attention to that and considered that the fraudulence of the GNKR "also
checked the deceptions of the Theosophical Society."
(What William Judge wrote about Butler and Ohmart you
can read here.)
In 1891 Butler went to live in California with twelve of his followers and settled on a 500-acre homestead overlooking the American River, near the town of Applegate. There, they built an 18-room house, established a farm, and set up a
printing press so that Butler could continue publishing his books and his magazine.
Butler established on that farm a utopian community called "The Esoteric
Fraternity" which later became known as "The Order of
Melchizedek," which was based on astrology, radical celibacy (despite
Butler's reputation for womanizing) and development of the will as the path to the New Illumination.
That cult was intended to prepare its followers to run a worldwide religious dictatorship, and faded from
history after a still-unsolved murder claimed one of its member.
Bibliography
Butler's most famous work was
Solar Biology, first published in 1887, in which he simplified astrology by
basing horoscopes on sun and moon signs, rather than on complex planetary
movements. Scholarly astrologers
assert that this is an incorrect way to analyze astrology, but many less
knowledgeable astrologers adopted Butler's formulas, especially those who write
for the newspapers.
Others of his books were:
·
Esoteric Significance
of Color
·
Gathering the Good of
All
·
Narrow Way of Attainment
(1901)
·
Practical Methods to
Insure Success (1893)
·
The Goal of Life, Or,
Science and Revelation (1908)
·
The Highway of
Success
·
The Idea of God
·
The Paradox
·
The Seven Creative
Principles (1887)
·
The Subjugation of
the Body
·
The Three Ways
·
Who Is Able to Walk
the Narrow Way?
His magazines
Butler began to publish monthly his Esoteric
magazine in Boston starting in July 1887, and the journal was advertised as:
"A magazine devoted to Advanced
and Practical Esoteric Thought; Oriental and Occidental Theosophy; The New
Illumination; How to Climb the Heights of Mental and Spiritual Power; the
Science of Understanding, which gives the key to important ancient works. It
tells how to make Attainments and ultimate the Ideal of the Ages. It teaches
how to secure health and impart the same to others through the law of Mind and
Soul vibrations. It expounds many long-hidden truths," etc.
Butler continued to publish his magazine later in California.
From 1894 to 1899 large sections of this magazine were published under
the title "The Revised Esoteric,"
but also extensive portions were omitted. In the preface Butler explained this,
saying that:
-
"It was our
policy in the beginning of this Magazine to accept articles without criticism
that we regarded as unfit, in order that the people might to think for
themselves, and thus be enabled to judge between truth and error."
This argument sounds very little credible and it is most likely that
Butler had internal conflicts and therefore later rejected much of the material
that he had originally published in his magazine.
In September 1900, he changed its magazine name to "The Occult and
Biological Journal". And from September 1902, he again changed the name to
"The Bible Review".
His followers continued to publish this magazine after his death (in
1916) until 1943, but from 1926 they changed the name to "The Christian
Esoteric".
CONCLUSION
Hiram Erastus Butler was one of the
first liars to take advantage of the fame of the Theosophical Society to create
his sect.
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