Harodim
A degree of Freemasonry very popular in the North of England, and especially in the County of Durham, and probably founded in Gateshead in 1681. It was brought under the Grand Lodge in 1735. They were the custodians of the Ritual of All Masonry, or the Old York Ritual. There were nine lodges in all. A London version of this society was the Harodim-Rosy-Cross, of Jacobite origin, probably carried to London by the Earl of Derwentwater. This latter may have been a Scotch rite in very early times. Harris, Thomas Lake, 1823-1906: An American spiritualist born in Buckinghamshire, who, with his parents, emigrated to the United States when he was of a tender age. He adopted the profession of a preacher of the Universalist Church, but afterwards became a Swedenborgian. He attached himself to Davis (q.v.), but after the latter's exposure he deserted him and established himself as a preacher at New York, where he gathered round him a considerable congregation. When about twenty-seven years of age, he began to pose as the possessor of prophetic power, and produced a number of poems, which are not without a certain merit of their own. These he was able to improvise with such rapidity as to lead many to the belief that he was indeed divinely inspired. Somewhere about the year 1859 he visited London, where in certain circles his verse was admired. On returning to America, he founded a small community near New York, of which he became the head. Its members were of a heterogeneous description, composing American ladies of means, Japanese, clergymen, and the author, Laurence Oliphant, with his wife and mother. This community Harris called the Brotherhood of the New Life, and a little later on it was decided to change its site to the shores of Lake Erie. The principal industry of the community was wine-making, and for this Harris was called to account by the temperance party, but he summarily dismissed their objections by stating that the wine he made was the direct vehicle of the Divine Breath. His theology was a curious one: he believed that the Creator was androgyne, and he favoured married celibacy. The mode of breathing professed by him appears to have been imitated from that in vogue among certain Buddhist castes, but it was to be the mark of the faithful. In 1881 the Oliphants seceded from his rule, and charged him with fraud. They took legal proceedings against him, and succeeded in recovering considerable sums in this manner. Oliphant believed to the last that Harris possessed psychical powers, but there is no doubt at all that he was extremely avaricious and licentious as his books of verse, issued to a select circle, prove. In 1891 he proclaimed that he had renewed his youth, and that he had discovered what amounted to the elixir of life. On his death in 1906 his disciples would not believe that he had passed away, but thought he was only sleeping. He died in March, and it was not util June that his demise was publicly acknowledged by his followers. His whole philosophy was directed towards the breaking down the established order of the relations of the sexes. His sect had a jargon of its own, and its language was often inflated and absurd. But with all his failings, and they were many,
Harris was a man of considerable gifts, among which may be noted some poetic fervour and fluency and force of character.