August Vandekerkhove (

Kanegem Kanegem is a Belgian locality, part of the municipality of Tielt, in the eastern part of the province of West Flanders. This rural locality is known as the "Green Village". Sightseeing * St. Bavo's Church, a Baroque church, well known locally as ...

, 15 October 1838 -

Mâcon Mâcon (), historically anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the prefecture of the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home to near 34,000 residents, who are referred to in French as ...

, 24 March 1923) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

writer, art-painter and inventor. He wrote under the pseudonym S.U.Zanne. He started a movement he called Cosmosofie (Cosmosophy), which he claimed it to be the

anti-thesis Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together f ...

Theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...

. He was a friend of the French

occultist The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

s and Martinists Papus and

Jean Bricaud Jean (or Joanny) Bricaud (11 February 1881, Neuville-sur-Ain, Ain – 24 February 1934), also known as Tau Jean II, was a French student of the occult and esoteric matters. Bricaud was heavily involved in the French neo-Gnostic movement. He was ...

. He met

Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, uk, Олена Петрівна Блаватська, Olena Petrivna Blavatska (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 187 ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1884 and also in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

between 1865 and 1880, but they could not get along with each other. He wrote in magazines such as La Fronde, La Lumière, Borderland, L'Initiation, La Solidarité Mondiale, La Haute Science, Annales Initiatiques, Petit Journal, 1889, and L'Action Féministe. August Vandekerkhove was one of the first persons to coin the term, "the Age of Aquarius", in a French magazine, "La Fronde" in late February 1890. This is likely one of the first mentions of the "age of Aquarius", which is said to begin when the March equinox point moves out of the constellation Pisces and into the constellation Aquarius. Each year, on the afternoon of

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Hol ...

, at 5 PM, people gather around his grave at the cemetery of Flacé, rue Ambroise Paré, in Mâcon in France to remember him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vandekerkhove, August Belgian feminists Belgian painters 19th-century Belgian inventors 19th-century Belgian dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Belgian male writers 20th-century Belgian dramatists and playwrights Belgian male dramatists and playwrights Belgian occult writers Belgian educational theorists Belgian Theosophists Male feminists 1838 births 1923 deaths