Stephen Flowers

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Stephen Edred Flowers
Nationality	American

Stephen Edred Flowers (born 1953) is an American Runologist and expert on occultism and Germanic mysticism. 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. Flowers advocates "Esoteric Runology" or "Odianism", an occultist version of Germanic Neopaganism.^[1]

Contents 1 Education 2 History 3 Work 4 Criticisms 5 Partial bibliography 5.1 Stephen Flowers 5.2 As Edred Thorsson 5.3 Translations 5.4 Other published works 6 References 7 External links

[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 he reportedly never became involved with the organization beyond his receiving their newsletter, "The Cloven Hoof."^[2] 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^[3]. 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 ^[4].

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, advocating "Rune Magic". 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. He is also criticized by some Germanic pagans for misrepresenting setian (relating to specific esoteric concepts associated with the Temple of Set) ideas as belonging to Germanic Paganism, particularly in his books that were aimed and marketed at people new to Germanic Paganism, possibly with the intent to influence younger generations of Germanic Pagans into the acceptance of Setian ideals. This argument is in part also based on his past and continuing involvement with the Order of the Trapezoid, a division of the Temple of Set that devotes itself to the study of magical traditions of various cultures.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5]

Sweyn Plowright, a former member of the Rune-Gild who resigned from the organization in 2000,^[6] has referred to the philosophy of Flowers as being "neo-satanic" and antinomian.^[7]

[edit] Partial bibliography

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• New Dawn Magazine Wisdom for the Wolf-Age: A Conversation With Dr. Stephen Flowers - magazine interview
• Woodharrow Institute of Germanic Studies
• Rune Gild
• Temple of Set
• Order of the Trapezoid

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