Madeline Montalban (1910–1982) was an English
astrologer and
ceremonial magician who co-founded the
esoteric organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star (OMS), through which she propagated her own form of
Luciferianism. After moving to London in the early 1930s and immersing herself in its esoteric subculture, she taught herself ceremonial magic and associated with significant occultists, including
Aleister Crowley and
Kenneth Grant, and
Wiccans like
Gerald Gardner and
Alex Sanders. From 1933 until her death she wrote magazine articles on astrology and other esoteric topics. In 1952 she met Nicholas Heron, with whom she entered into a relationship, and they founded the OMS as a
correspondence course in 1956, teaching subscribers their own magical rites. Viewing
Lucifer as a benevolent angelic deity, she believed Luciferianism had its origins in ancient
Babylon, and encouraged her followers to contact angelic beings associated with the planetary bodies to aid their spiritual development. Having refused to publish her ideas in books, Montalban became largely forgotten following her death, although the OMS continued under new leadership. (
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... that September Morn survived the
October Revolution, caused widespread controversy in the United States, and was featured on bottle openers, calendars, and candy boxes, but is now in a warehouse?
... that the luxury steam yacht Rover was bought unseen by American business tycoon
Howard Hughes in 1933?
... that the 19th-century feminist Henrietta Müller persuaded employers to hire women by "cannily pointing out that this would save money since women were paid less than men"?
... that some retailers did not believe banknotes in the Scenes of Canada series were real money when the series was first circulated?
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play by
William Shakespeare, probably written between 1590 and 1596, about events surrounding the marriage of
Theseus, the
Duke of Athens, to
Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. This scene shows two victims of mischievous fairies: the fairy queen
Titania and the human weaver
Bottom. She is smitten with him due to
Oberon's love potion, while his head was changed to an
ass's by
Puck.
This
Edwin Landseer painting, Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, was commissioned by the engineer
Isambard Kingdom Brunel to hang on his dining room wall as part of a series of Shakespeare-themed works. The painting, its subject likely selected by Landseer for its close ties to animals, was popular from its first exhibition; the future
Queen Victoria described it as "a gem, beautifully fairy-like and graceful".
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