Stephen Flowers

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Stephen Edred Flowers Ph.D (born 1953) is an American expert on occultism and Germanic languages. The Bonham, Texas-born author has over two dozen published books and hundreds of published papers on a disparate range of subjects. He is also known by the pen-name Edred Thorsson.

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[edit] Education

Flowers did his graduate work in Germanic and Celtic philology under professor and scholar Edgar Polomé at the University of Texas at Austin from 1973-1984. In 1981-1982 he studied the history of occultism at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Medieval Studies in 1984 with a dissertation entitled Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Elder Tradition. From 1984-1989 he was a lecturer in the Departments of English and Germanic Languages at the University of Texas and was last known to be teaching Classical Philology at Austin Community College.

[edit] History

Flowers has been very active in Left-Hand Path occult organizations, and was instrumental in the early establishment of the Germanic Neopagan movement in North America.

Flowers joined the Church of Satan in 1972 though never became involved with the organization beyond his receiving their newsletter, "The Cloven Hoof."[1] On November 11, 1983 he founded a small group to explore what he saw as the dark, futuristic undercurrent of Odinism called The Order of Shining Trapezohedron or "O.S.T." which was closed on January 13, 1984[2]. The O.S.T. served as a segue into his involvement with the Temple of Set, an organization in which he currently holds the degree of Ipsissimus VI°. Within the Temple of Set he served as Grand Master of the Order of the Trapezoid from January 1987 until June 1996 [3].

Flowers was one of the original members of the Asatru Free Assembly. In 1979 Flowers founded the Rune-Gild, an initiatory order focused on the revival of the elder Runic tradition. Flowers currently is the executive officer, or Yrmin Drighten of the Rune-Gild. As a project of the Rune-Gild, Flowers founded the Ásatrú organization the Ring of Troth in 1987 (which is now simply called the Troth). Flowers is no longer affiliated with the Troth. Flowers has also has been involved with the Armanen-Orden, the Order of the Triskelion and other occult orders.

Flowers is currently the director of the 'Woodharrow Institute of Germanic Studies and the owner and operator of Runa-Raven Press.

[edit] Work

In addition to being a prolific writer, Flowers is well known for translating obscure texts and manuscripts written in Icelandic, Old Norse and German into the English language, making many of them available to a wider range of readers for the first time.

[edit] Criticisms

Flowers has received criticism for his involvement in occult organizations, most prominently by members of Germanic neopagan groups who see such associations as potentially misrepresenting and damaging to their religion.

In 1989, Flowers was expelled from the Odinic Rite following his Open Letter to the Leadership of the Asatru/Odinist/Troth Movement wherein he detailed his involvement with the Temple of Set[4].

Sweyn Plowright, a former member of the Rune-Gild who resigned from the organization in 2000[1], has characterized the philosophy of Flowers as being "neo-satanic" and antinomian.[5]

[edit] Partial bibliography

[edit] Stephen Flowers

  • Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Elder Runic Tradition, 1987 ISBN 0-8204-0333-4
  • The Galdrabók: an Icelandic Grimoire, 1989 ISBN 0-87728-685-X
  • Fire & Ice: Magical Teachings of Germany's Greatest Secret Occult Order, 1990 ISBN 0-87542-776-6
  • Black Rûna, 1995
  • Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris, 1995 ISBN 0-87728-828-3
  • Green Rûna: The Runemaster's Notebook, 1996 ISBN 1-885972-03-2
  • Lords of the Left-Hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent , 1997 ISBN 1-885972-08-3
  • Red Rûna, 2002
  • Carnal Alchemy: A Sado-Magical Exploration of Pleasure, Pain and Self-Transformation, 2002
  • A Concise Edition of Old English Runic Inscriptions
  • Travel-Report As it Concerns the Scandinavian Rûs - Ibn Fadlan - Introduction and Commentary by Stephen Flowers
  • Johannes Bureus and the Adalruna
  • Rúnarmál I
  • A Source-Book of Seid (with James Chisholm), 2002
  • Studia Germanica Volume I
  • Wendish Mythology: Divinities and Religious Practices of the Western Slavs
  • The Magian Tarok: The Key Linking the Mithraic, Greek, Roman Hebrew and Runic Traditions with that of the Tarot

[edit] As Edred Thorsson

  • Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic, 1984 ISBN 0-87728-548-9
  • Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology, 1987 ISBN 0-87728-667-1
  • At The Well of Wyrd 1988 reprinted & retitled Runecaster’s Handbook: The Well of Wyrd, 1999 ISBN 1-57863-136-X
  • Rune Might: Secret Practices of the German Rune Magicians, 1989, 1990 ISBN 0-87542-778-2
  • A Book of Troth, 1989, 1992 ISBN 0-87542-777-4
  • The Nine Doors of Midgard, 1991 ISBN 0-87542-781-2 reprinted & retitled The Nine Doors of Midgard: A Curriculum of Rune-Work, 2003 ISBN 1-885972-23-7
    • Die Neun Tore von Midgard Ein magischer Lehrplan der Runen-Gilde, 2004 ISBN 3-935581-59-9
  • The Truth about Teutonic Magic, 1991 ISBN 0-87542-779-0
  • Northern Magic: Mysteries of the Norse, Germans & English,1992 reprinted & retitled Northern Magic: Rune Mysteries and Shamanism, 1998 ISBN 1-56718-709-9
  • Book of Ogham: The Celtic Tree Oracle, 1994 ISBN 0-9754278-4-9
  • Green Rûna - Shorter Works of Edred Thorsson Vol. I (1978-1985),1996 ISBN 1-885972-03-2
  • Blue Rûna: Edred’s Shorter Works vol. III
  • Rune-Song Book & CD
  • An Introduction to the Germanic Tradition
  • Witchdom of the True: A Study of the Vana-Troth and the Practice of Seidr

[edit] Translations

  • The Secret of the Runes by Guido von List, 1990 (trans.) ISBN 0-89281-207-9
  • Rune-Magic by Siegfried Adolf Kummer, 1993 (trans.) ISBN 1-885972-00-8
  • The Secret King: Karl Maria Wiligut -- Himmler’s Lord of the Runes, 2001 (trans. and introduced) ISBN 1885972210
  • The Rune-Poems Vol I, 2002 ISBN 1-885972-19-9
  • The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons by Rudolf von Sebottendorf (trans.)
  • Strange Tales by Hanns Heinz Ewers (trans.)
  • The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric (trans.)
  • The Invincible by Guido von List (trans.)
  • The EDDA as Key to the Coming Age (trans.)

[edit] Other published works

  • Tyr: Myth-Culture-Tradition Volume I: The Idea of Integral Culture: A model for a Revolt Against the Modern World, 2002 ISBN 0-9720292-0-6
  • Tyr: Myth-Culture-Tradition Volume II: The First Northern Renaissance: The Reawakening of the Germanic Spirit in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in Germany, Sweden and England, 2004 ISBN 0-9720292-1-4
  • FringeWare Review Magazine Issue #3: The Secret of the Gothick God of Darkness

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thorsson, Edred (1996). Green Rûna - Shorter Works of Edred Thorsson Vol. I (1978-1985), p. 85. ISBN 1-885972-03-2. 
  2. ^ Flowers, Stephen (1995). Black Runa: Being the Shorter Works of Stephen Edred Flowers Produced for the Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set (1985-1989), p. 11. 
  3. ^ "Runes: The Journal of the Order of the Trapezoid" Vol XIV Number 2
  4. ^ Odinic Rite Briefing No.86, 14th July 1989
  5. ^ Plowright, Sweyn (2006). The Rune Primer. LuLu, pp.98-103. ISBN 1847282466. 

[edit] External links

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