Archangels & Archaeology

Download or read book Archangels & Archaeology written by Geoffrey A. C. Ginn and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Sebastian Marlow Ward (1885-1949) was an English antiquarian, mystic, occult scholar, and museums' pioneer. Ward's provocative works on Masonic symbolism, secret societies, and spirit communications remain in print, and the innovative social history museum - the Abbey Folk Park - which he founded in New Barnet, north London in the 1930s, was later transplanted to Queensland, Australia, where it continues to flourish. His career demonstrates a remarkable fusion of the esoteric and spiritual pre-occupations of the early 20th century, with the deeper currents of antiquarianism and Christian mysticism. Ward's life of energetic work, spiritual exploration, and public activity presents a compelling narrative. His career moved from Cambridge Freemasonry and Edwardian Britain's occult revival to wartime spirit communications and mystical visions of a Pentecostal apocalypse as World War II approached. His unique and populist history museum fused a passion for Britain's disappearing heritage with his conviction that the collapse of Western civilization was imminent. When Ward was unfairly disgraced in a sensational court case in May 1945, he and his followers departed England for Cyprus in self-imposed exile. Archangels and Archaeology examines Ward's extraordinary life and career, demonstrating how these religious, intellectual, and cultural themes - so often treated in isolation - came together in the turbulent decades of the early 20th century. But, his career also has its own tragic arc: from youthful antiquarian, to the mature scholar, to full-blown mystic and eccentric religious leader, and, finally, to his own fall from public grace, in exile and decline.