Occult Gazette.
Truth Through Universal Eyes.
Amor Vincit Omnia
1960--1974? Quarterly, and then monthly
London, England. Publisher: School of Universal Philosophy and Healing. Editor: Gladys I. Spearman-Cook; Edward Averill, Dick Speller.
1/1, September 1960-1974. $7.00/£2,25 a year. 16 pp., 15x10.

This was the organ of the School of Universal Philosophy and Healing("SUPH") organized in 1946 by the medium Gladys Spearman-Cook (Violet Gladys Isabella Gardner Spearman Cook, 1900-1982). It is an extraordinary production, filled with the Gothic florescences of late spiritualism, written (almost solely by Spearman-Cook) in lavish, exuberant language just beyond the edge of intelligibility and copiously illustrated with images adapted from from old books and occasionally from Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spear. Every issue abounds in stream-of-consciousness dithyrambs like:

“We are now seeking into an internal subtlety, that will require an extensive depth of acquired Occult Wisdom, that of Holy Spermed Mutation, that makes way for the Royal Light of Vega to manifest. For it having unfolded the intensity of Being, by soul perceiving the true conception of Divine Phallic Worship, that of Eleusinian Roots, we can now come to the profound audibility of Diapasonic Vibronic Rhythm, becoming sound. For here are the constant clairaudient depths of a Divine Central Sun awakenment. That of a Spiritual Ego forged Brilliance, of a mind conscious Belief in the Full Atomic Hermeneutic captivation of the Breath, in Royal Phenomenal Glory. With the infinity revolving and spinning up into the heights, driving the electrolysis skywards."

The journal's language abounds in sexual reference and metaphor like “Primordial Copulation." “This being an Eleusinian Reality, that which now has opened up the Ivory Doorway of Truth. Then in having unfolded this intensity of being, by so perceiving, comprehends more fully of the truth of Divine Phallic Altar Worship. Where the soul perceives the full truth of his own creation, which redeems the Fall he once made." Despite the imagery, however, Spearman-Cook inculcated emphatically in her students the necessity of celibacy for following the path of wisdom. The celibacy she enjoined was only the base element of the true “Androgynous marriage": “Occultists know that the generative organs are ruled by Scorpio, and if the true Androgynous marriage took place, the uniting of the Seed of man, the sperm or ovum seed, into the woman or body, then the immaculate conception of a MIND birth would take place, the true understanding of the Christ Teachings," etc.

She had begun as a public medium about 1938 and married John Cook, who prepared horoscopes for her students in 1943. She founded SUPH in 1946 to enlighten her students with communications from Ra-Men-Ra, her primary spirit guide, and from various other entities of the cosmic hierarchy like The Lord of the Scorpio Hierarchy, the Great Eagle, and The Lord of the Flame, and others. The teachings were heavily Egyptian in tone (due, perhaps, to Spearman-Cook's earlier incarnation as Merope 13,000 years ago), and she called herself Zamiaar “the Light of the Temple" and favored mauve robes for her presentations in the school. The school was several times noted to have 100 or more students, many of them of substantial position, and this journal seems to have had a worldwide subscription. SUPH presented the full range of occult and spiritualist teachings of the era, ranging from Weekly Mind Development Classes to classes in astrology, and offered healing to all: “Absent healing. Any reader wishing to receive this Spirit Sustenance send in their Names to be placed in the Healing Book of Names to be blessed each Lecture for a period of six months by The Lord of the Flame. A recording fee of 50 p or $2.00 is requested." Members were required to hand over all their wealth and income to the school and were adjured to practice celibacy.

This journal was begun ("commanded") in 1960 and combined Spearman-Cook's disquisitions with the usual occult topics of the time: the Grail, the coming of the Aquarian Christos, Egyptian mysteries, the Secret Doctrine, Astrology, the Mystery Legends of the Bible, Cosmic Consciousness, Spermed Intelligencia, healing, calendar reform (at least one issue of the journal was dated August 1st 72 A.M.--"after Merope," based on her birth in 1900), UFOs, etc. The journal printed at least one article by Professor Hilton Hotema and is notable for publishing several long articles in defense of Aleister Crowley, and for predicting, in 1970, of the victory of Harold Wilson in the elections that year because he was the reincarnation of a famous pharaoh. He lost. The School survived the death of its Principal, but only for a short time. Life in Spearman-Cook's cult is covered, extensively, in Elisabeth Fraser's Fragments -- My Life and Death in a Cult (2007). She and her siblings were members of Spearman-Cook's cult and many others for years. BL; St. Galler Bibliotheksnetz.

IAPSOP materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
IAPSOP respects people's privacy and personal data rights.