Arkansas Pagan Pride

Ambrose Hawk was raised in an extremely eclectic and esoteric environment which included psionic experiments, esoteric exercises drawn from some fragments of an unnamed British tradition, and Cherokee medicine. His father spent time during World War II as a shipboard rabbi. At the war’s end, his father even managed to get to spend some months in a Buddhist monastery.

In spite of these advantages, Ambrose quickly discovered that his own “talents” were minimal in comparison to his relatives and their friends. So from childhood, Ambrose studied hints and texts as he could to uncover the historical threads that lead to his father’s ideas. By the time of his father’s passing, the family recognized him as the “wizard” or “medicine man” (depending on ethnic extraction). Even though, they were still more “gifted.” Of course, not all saw this as a “good” thing.

Ambrose Hawk first emerged as an occultist due to the reckless experiments attempted by his friends during the occult fad of the 1960’s. Ironically, this eventually led him into a deeper involvement with his Church. Hawk spent six years as a seminarian, two of them in a Benedictine college and two of them at the Pontifical Institute at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. During this time, his Benedictine spiritual advisor chided Ambrose for not attempting to integrate the spirituality of his traditions into the more formal traditions of the Church.

Since that time, Ambrose Hawk has sought actively to uncover the deepest links among the religious symbols and archetypes that all peoples share to some degree. Participation in one particular project in the DC area during the ’80’s taught Mr. Hawk that all mystical disciplines, including Christianity, share many particular exercises. Ultimately, this led to his first principle: “Technique is not Theology.” Next, their studies led them to many ancient sources of Christian magic and ritual going back into the second century after Christ and including such recent Catholic luminaries as Eliphas Levi, Papus, and Valentin Tromberg. Indeed, the vaunted Golden Dawn tradition has a great debt to the angelic magic developed by that ardent Protestant, Dr. Dee.

In the early ’90’s, Ambrose Hawk (a name taken in part to protect his aspirations of teaching in fervently fundamentalist areas) participated in psychic fairs; offering a variety of Tarot Readings, astrological analyses, and scrying. More recently, he has been active in encouraging individuals who have discovered the mystical paths of modern movements such as Wicca or the New Age to be open to the potentials of the kind of synthesis with Christianity which he had found for himself.

While there are many, many more adept individuals in both magical practice and particular magical or gnostic traditions, there are not many who can combine the eclectic background with such a traditional anthropological and theological training.

Who are Gavin and Yvonne Frost?

Gavin Frost, BSc, PhD, DD

Biography of Ambrose Hawk