Freeman B. Dowd
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Page | 0 Freeman B. Dowd UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM Freeman B. Dowd Lecturer, Author, Rosicrucian, Purveyor of New Thought John Wise 10847340 [email protected] M.A. Theology and Religious Studies: Western Esotericism University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wouter J. Hanegraaff John Wise 10847340 M.A. Western Esotericism (Thesis) [email protected] University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Page | 1 Freeman B. Dowd Freeman Benjamin Dowd 1828 – 1910 John Wise 10847340 M.A. Western Esotericism (Thesis) [email protected] University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Page | 2 Freeman B. Dowd Table of Contents Thesis Introduction: Freeman B. Dowd -3 Who was Freeman B. Dowd? -4 Why this study: Problematizing the Issue -6 Chapter One: Freeman B. Dowd’s Life and Travels -8 Academic Writings that address Freeman B. Dowd -8 Tracing Dowd’s Travels -13 Dowd’s Life Prior to His Public Work -14 Meeting up with Paschal Beverly Randolph and the Occult Milieu -17 Life in Waller Texas -20 Writing the New Order -23 Dowd’s Waning Years -25 Chapter Two: Dowd’s Publications -28 A Short Synopsis of Dowd’s published works -28 Hypnotism and the Individual -31 Reincarnation, Rebirth, and Spirit Possession -33 Immortality and the Spiritual Body -36 Love and Sex -40 Love and Mind Power -41 The Double Body: Spiritual Regeneration and the Vastation of the Soul -44 Love Beyond Sex -46 Spiritual Regeneration -49 Chapter Three: Freeman B. Dowd and the Interaction of Multiple Traditions -52 Randolph’s Life and Travels -52 Randolph’s Teachings on Sexual Magic -54 Randolph’s Teachings on Clairvoyance and Magic Mirrors -59 Randolph’s Teachings on Reincarnation -61 Randolph’s Relation To Dowd -64 Dowd’s Occult Milieu, the Convergence of Alternative Religious Thought -65 Spiritualism and the Rosicrucian -66 New Thought -67 The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor -68 Thesis Conclusion: Studying a Person, Studying an Era -73 John Wise 10847340 M.A. Western Esotericism (Thesis) [email protected] University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Page | 3 Freeman B. Dowd Introduction: Freeman B. Dowd “Tracers of history’s missing persons not only have to cut through the massive steel doors of the ruling ideologies, but also through the massive indifference of a systematically stupified society.”1 Recovering lost and ignored witnesses of the past is an arduous task worth the effort it requires. The works of scholars like John Patrick Deveney,2 Joscelyn Godwin,3 and Catherine Albanese,4 among others, have the potential to inspire others to seek out lost knowledge and uncover forgotten figures of the past. Their research, into alternative religious traditions like those of nineteenth century occultism, has helped to shape the identity the field of Western Esoteric studies just as the occultism they have studied shaped the identity of its contemporary American culture.5 This thesis aims to bring to light the figure of Freeman Benjamin Dowd (1828-1910), a nineteenth century photographer, lecturer, author and Rosicrucian who dabbled in the emergent 1 Rosemont, Franklin, Forward to Deveney, John Patrick. Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Albany New York: State University Press of New York, 1997. pp xiii. 2 Deveney, John Patrick. Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Albany New York: State University Press of New York, 1997. 3 Godwin, Joscelyn. Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. Also: Godwin, Joscelyn. Chanel, Christian. Deveney, John P. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1995. 4 Albanese, Catherine L. A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 5 By occult and occultism here I mean 19th-century developments within the history of Western esotericism and a particular form of alternative religious discourse in Western culture. For a fuller discussion of Occultism and Western Esotericism see the above texts from Godwin, Deveney, and Albanese as well as: Hanegraaf, Wouter. Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: Bloomsbury 2013. John Wise 10847340 M.A. Western Esotericism (Thesis) [email protected] University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Page | 4 Freeman B. Dowd movement of New Thought in the early twentieth century.6 This thesis seeks to mend the hole in our historical record which has all but forgotten Freeman Dowd, who he was, what he taught, what he wrote and who he interacted with. In so doing, this thesis forms a study of late nineteenth century occult thought. Various academic works like those of Jon Butler and Catherine Albanese have shown the ways in which these alternative traditions formed and characterized important aspects of American religious discourse.7 This thesis paper will focus particularly on Dowd, an individual who identified himself as a Rosicrucian and who was interacting with various alternative religious practitioners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Who was Freeman B. Dowd? Though he identified himself as a Rosicrucian, in the mid-nineteenth century a number of figures in the United States labeled themselves as Rosicrucians.8 Therefore, the moniker tells us little of who Dowd was. However, central to these individuals who identified themselves as Rosicrucians and the organizations they created was the person of Paschal Beverly Randolph (d. 6 Though I will discuss this movement further in chapter three of this thesis, by New Thought here I mean the late nineteenth and early twentieth century metaphysical movement stemming from the work of Phineas P. Quimby and later which asserted a philosophy of ideals on mind power. In this system of thought, ideas are the primary reality and all causation in matter stems from the mind. This movement embraces a wide range of thought and practices concerning metaphysical healing and the power of the mind. For more on New Thought see: Braden, Charles S. Spirits in Rebellion. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1963. 7 Butler,Jon. Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990. See also: Albanese, Catherine L. A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 8 Rosicrucianism, an esoteric intiatic order of occult knowledge, can be traced back to the early seventeenth century in Europe. However, Rosicrucianism in America did not begin to form until the mid-nineteenth century. John Wise 10847340 M.A. Western Esotericism (Thesis) [email protected] University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Page | 5 Freeman B. Dowd 1875), a black American Spiritualist and practitioner of sexual magic.9 I first encountered Dowd while researching Randolph. One of the works written by Dowd can be found in the academic title, Rosicrucianism in America, a collection of primary source texts from American history.10 Searching further for who this individual was, I found that Dowd had little modern work written on him and less still about his teachings. Dowd was the direct pupil of Randolph and a prolific author in his own right. Though largely forgotten by history, Dowd was a well-known lecturer, writer, and figurehead of early Rosicrucian orders in America as well as various circles of occult literature and thought of the late nineteenth century.11 Dowd was influential in the uptake of concepts derived from Randolph’s sexual magic into the New Thought Movement particularly the power of love and reincarnation.12 By New Thought I mean the late nineteenth and early twentieth century metaphysical movement stemming from the work of Phineas P. Quimby, and the later work of Emma Curtis Hopkins. This movement generally asserted a philosophy of ideals on mind power and healing.13 9 For the exhaustive biography of Randolph see: Deveney, Paschal Beverly Randolph. 1997. 10 Melton, J. Gordon. Rosicrucianism in America. Garland Publishing Inc: CT 1990. 11 Though I say “orders” plural here, the reality is that there were several small failed startups on the part of Randolph and Dowd. There would be later orders to form from Randolph and Dowd’s work. However, the later formulations of Rosicrucianism such as George Winslow Plummer's Societas Rosicruciana in America and Reuben Swinburne Clymer's Fraternitas Rosae Crucis hold tenuous connections at best to Dowd and Randolph. Though Clymer would trace a direct lineage through Edward Holmes Brown to Freeman Dowd and thereby to Paschal Randolph, evidence for an unbroken lineage is circumspect. See: Clymer, The Rosicrucian Fraternity in America. Also see: March 5, 1917 issue of Mercury, the journal of the Societas Rosicruciana in America, in which an obituary with information from Brown is given in dedication to Dowd as a Pioneer Rosicrucian. 12 I will discuss Randolph’s theology of sexual magic and reincarnation in chapter three of this Thesis. 13 I will discuss New Thought in more detail in the third chapter of this thesis: For more on New Thought see: Melton, J. Gordon. “New Thought and the New Age” in Perspectives on the New Age Lewis, James R. (ed.) and Melton, J. Gordon (ed.) Albany, New York: State University of New York John Wise 10847340 M.A. Western Esotericism (Thesis) [email protected] University of Amsterdam 2014-2016 Page | 6 Freeman B. Dowd References to Dowd and advertisements for Dowd’s books in dozens of New Thought journals, both English and German, evidence his popularity in and among this movement.14 Based on the prevalence of both his articles in these journals and the advertisements for his published works, by the late 1890s anyone who was at all interested in New Thought or sex magic in the United States at least knew of Dowd and had probably read him.