{{Short description|English writer on Christian mysticism and Western esotericism}} {{Infobox person | name = M. R. Osborne | birth_name = Michael Robert Osborne | birth_date = 1969 | birth_place = | occupation = {{Plainlist| * Writer * Translator * Solicitor }} | education = University of Birmingham (BA, MA, Theology) | notable_works = ''The Lessons of Lyons'' (2021)<br>''The Brazen Serpent: Chaos and Order'' (2022) | website = {{URL|http://mrosborne.org/}} }} '''Michael Robert Osborne''' (born 1969) is an English writer, translator, and solicitor whose books concern Christian mysticism, Western esotericism, and philosophical alchemy. He is best known within Rosicrucian and Martinist study circles for English-language editions of eighteenth-century manuscripts associated with the Élus Coëns order founded by Martinez de Pasqually. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, ESSWE, Authors Guild, and a practising Solicitor in England and Wales.
== Career == Osborne has authored multiple published works exploring the relationship between Western esotericism and Christian orthodoxy. His research includes analysis of the alchemical influences on William Blake and the theoretical connections between reported haunting experiences and time-slip phenomena. In ''Brazen Serpent: Chaos and Order'' he examines the "divine code" concealed within the biblical Nehushtan myth, and its association with the so-called 23 enigma.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Osborne |first=M.R. |title=The Alchemy of William Blake: The Three Principles of the Divine Essence and 'An Allegory of the Spiritual Condition of Man' |date=2024 |publisher=Rose Circle Publications |isbn=979-8-89480-155-1 |publication-place=Bayonne, NJ |language=English |page=285}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Osborne |first=M.R. |title=Time Slip Phenomena: The Ghosts of the Trianon, The Legend of Lucy Lightfoot and the Haunting of William Hogarth |date=2023 |publisher=Rose Circle Publications |isbn=979-8-89217-790-0 |edition=1st |location=Bayonne, NJ |publication-date=2022 |pages=104 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1 September 2022 |title=The Brazen Serpent |url=https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?p=2016494 |access-date=20 November 2024 |website=Online Book Club}}</ref> His work ''The Brazen Serpent''<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=August 1, 2021 |title=The Brazen Serpent: Chaos & Order |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990227547260107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20brazen%20serpent |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref> was described by ''The Times Literary Supplement'' as "a good fit for those seeking spiritual enlightenment through alchemy, philosophy and Christianity."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Uzoamaka |first=Christabel |date=September 2, 2022 |title=The Brazen Serpent |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/issues/current-issue |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817183651/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/issues/current-issue/ |archive-date=August 17, 2023 |access-date=September 2, 2023 |website=Times Literary Supplement, London }}</ref> Montreal-based broadcaster Jonathan Stewart of the Gnostic Wisdom Network expressed the view that the publication of Osborne's translation of Pierre Fournié's ''What We Have Been, What We Are, And What We Will Become''<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=September 30, 2022 |title=Pierre Fournie: What We Have Been, What We Are And What We Will Become |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990232841650107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Pierre%20fournie&offset=0 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodeian Libraries}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Stewart |first=Jonathan |date=26 August 2023 |title=Fournie |url=https://gnosticwisdom.net/what-we-have-been-what-we-are-what-we-will-become-w-m-r-osborne/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827000000/https://gnosticwisdom.net/what-we-have-been-what-we-are-what-we-will-become-w-m-r-osborne/ |archive-date=27 August 2023 |access-date=20 November 2024 |website=The Gnostic Wisdom Network}} Alt URL:https://archive.org/download/Fournier/Fournier.mp3</ref> "was anticipated for over a decade."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.johannite.org/brother-jonathan-stewart/|title=The Rev. Deacon Jonathan Stewart - Apostolic Johannite Church|work=Apostolic Johannite Church }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gnosticwisdom.net|title=The Gnostic Wisdom Network|date=September 17, 2022|website=The Gnostic Wisdom Network}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Vaughan |first=Piers A. |date=5 February 2023 |title=Abbe Fournie: What We Have Been, What We Are and What We Will Become |url=https://rosecirclebooks.com/abbe-fournie-what-we-have-been-we-are-we-will-become/ |access-date=20 November 2024 |website=Rose Circle Books}}</ref>
Osborne is noted for his collaboration with Rose Circle Books on the English language editions of eighteenth-century manuscripts from the Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe. This collection includes ''The Lessons of Lyons'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Catalogue |first=British Library |title=Martinès de Pasqually, approximately 1715-1779 |url=https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990201964890100000&context=L&vid=44BL_INST:BLL01&lang=en&search_scope=Not_BL_Suppress&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=LibraryCatalog&query=sub,equals,Martine%CC%80s%20de%20Pasqually,%20approximately%201715-1779,AND&mode=advanced&offset=0 |access-date=April 4, 2021 |website=British Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=March 30, 2021 |title=The Lessons of Lyons |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990227609120107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Lessons%20of%20lyons&offset=0 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref> the''Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings''<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=January 30, 2023 |title=Martinez de Pasqually: Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings into their Original Property, Virtue and Divine, Spiritual Power |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990234271010107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,martinez%20de%20Pasqually&offset=0 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref> by Martinez de Pasqually, ''The de Grainville Manuscripts'' (also known as the ''Manuscript of Algiers'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=February 28, 2024 |title=The de Grainville Manuscripts: Elus Coens Ritual and Instruction from the Eighteenth Century |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991026905574807026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20de%20Grainville%20manuscripts |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref> Piers Allfrey Vaughan,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Legends of the Craft |date=January 10, 2025 |title=Legends of the Craft |url=https://legendsofthecraft.com/piers-a-vaughan/ |access-date=January 10, 2025 |website=Legends of the Craft}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=The Writers Guild |date=January 14, 2025 |title=Piers A. Vaughan |url=https://go.authorsguild.org/members/2714 |access-date=January 14, 2025 |website=The Writers Guild}}</ref> Grand First Principal of New York State, has commented on Osborne's work describing it as, "Well-researched and well-written."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://legendsofthecraft.com/piers-a-vaughan/|title=Piers A. Vaughan – Legends of the craft}}</ref> In 2022 he also published the first full colour restored edition of the ''Most Holy Trinosophia'' and the first translation into English of the text since Manly Palmer Hall's 1933 version.
Osborne is a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) and Director of Studies of the Society's Pythagoras College.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pythagoras College |date=January 10, 2025 |title=The Cripps Building |url=https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/cripps-building-1 |access-date=January 10, 2025 |website=St John's College}}</ref> In 2018, he won the prestigious Companion of Christian Rosenkreutz Prize<ref>{{Cite web |last=The Square Magazine |title=Book Review |url=https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202107book-review-companions-of-christian-rosenkreutz/ |access-date=January 14, 2025 |website=The Square Magazine}}</ref> for both his research papers on ''The Lessons of Lyon.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Osborne |first=M.R. |date=July 2017 |title=Martinez de Pasqually and the Transmission of Power |url=https://www.mrosborne.co.uk/the-elus-coen-library/martinez-de-pasqually-and-the-transmission-of-power |access-date=20 November 2024 |website=Metropolitan Study Group}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=M.R. |first=Osborne |date=16 December 2017 |title=The Lessons of Lyons |url=https://www.mrosborne.co.uk/the-elus-coen-library/salon-rose-croix-mark-mason-hall-the-lessons-of-lyon |access-date=20 November 2024 |website=Salon Rose Croix}}</ref> The prize is described in ''The Square Magazine'' as an award in recognition of "Outstanding researches and scholarship rendered to the society."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=Companions of Christian Rosenkreutz |url=https://www.thesquaremagazine.com/mag/article/202107book-review-companions-of-christian-rosenkreutz/}}</ref> He contributes to ''Watkins' Mind, Body & Spirit Magazine'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watkin's Mind Body Spirit |date=November 1, 2024 |title=Who Is M R Osborne? (Article: Interview with the author of The de Grainville Manuscripts) |url=https://www.watkinsmagazine.com/product/79-autumn-2024-watkins-mind-body-spirit-copy-2 |access-date=January 10, 2025 |website=Watkin's Magazine}}</ref> an internationally recognised publication on various subjects from contemporary spirituality to mysticism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.watkinsmagazine.com/product/79-autumn-2024-watkins-mind-body-spirit-copy-2|title=79, Autumn 2024 – Watkins Mind Body Spirit}}</ref>
Three of Osborne's books have been the subject of long-form review essays on Via Hygeia, a specialist online "bibliotherapy" project devoted to wisdom and esoteric literature: ''The Most Holy Trinosophia'' (2021 edition),<ref name="vh-trinosophia">{{Cite web |title=A Via Hygeia Bibliotherapy Book Review of Michael Robert Osborne's 2021 Edition of The Most Holy Trinosophia |url=https://via-hygeia.art/a-via-hygeia-bibliotherapy-book-review-of-michael-robert-osbornes-2021-edition-of-the-most-holy-trinosophia/ |website=Via Hygeia}}</ref> ''The Alchemy of William Blake'' ("Alchemy for the Algorithmic Age"),<ref name="vh-blake">{{Cite web |title=Alchemy for the Algorithmic Age: A Via Hygeia Bibliotherapy Book Review of Michael Robert Osborne's The Alchemy of William Blake |url=https://via-hygeia.art/alchemy-for-the-algorithmic-age-a-via-hygeia-bibliotherapy-book-review-of-michael-robert-osbornes-the-alchemy-of-william-blake/ |website=Via Hygeia}}</ref> and ''Rosicrucian Death'' ("Wittgenstein and Bergson at the Café").<ref name="vh-death">{{Cite web |title=Wittgenstein and Bergson at the Café: A Via Hygeia Bibliotherapy Book Review of Michael Robert Osborne's The Rosicrucian Death |url=https://via-hygeia.art/wittgenstein-and-bergson-at-the-cafe-a-via-hygeia-bibliotherapy-book-review-of-michael-robert-osbornes-the-rosicrucian-death/ |website=Via Hygeia}}</ref>
== Publications == * Osborne, M.R., ''The Lessons of Lyons'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2021, {{ISBN|979-8-89269-864-1}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''The Brazen Serpent: Chaos and Order'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2022, {{ISBN|979-8-89298-315-0}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''The Most Holy Trinosophia: A Book of the Dead'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2021, {{ISBN|979-8-88955-013-6}}, Library of Congress Number 2021917880)<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=August 1, 2022 |title=The Most Holy Trinosophia: A Book of the Dead |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990227420940107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20most%20holy%20trinosophia&offset=0 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Osborne |first=M. R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l49X0AEACAAJ |title=The Most Holy Trinosophia: A Book of the Dead |date=2023-11-02 |publisher=Rose Circle Publications |isbn=979-8-88955-013-6 |language=en}}</ref> * Osborne, M.R., ''Son of Perdition: The Magic and Hubris of Simon Magus'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2022, {{ISBN|979-8-89292-601-0}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''Pierre Fournie: What We Have Been, What Are And What We Will Become'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2022, {{ISBN|979-8-89269-867-2}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''Allegory in Stone: A Short Study of the Shakespeare Monument'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2022, {{ISBN|979-8-88796-954-1}})<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=October 24, 2022 |title=Allegory in Stone: A Short Study of the Shakespeare Memorial |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990228446650107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Allegory%20in%20stone&offset=0 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref> * Osborne, M.R., ''Time Slip Phenomena: The Ghosts of the Trianon, The Legend of Lucy Lightfoot and the Haunting of William Hogarth'' (Whitestone Esoteric, 2023, {{ISBN|979-8-89217-790-0}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''Martinez de Pasqually: Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2023, {{ISBN|979-8-89269-869-6}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''The de Grainville Manuscripts'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2024, 979-8892698832) * Osborne, M.R., ''The Alchemy of William Blake: The Three Principles of the Divine Essence and 'An Allegory on the Spiritual Condition of Man''' (Rose Circle Publications, 2024, {{ISBN|979-8-89504-366-0}})<ref>{{Cite web |last=University of Oxford |date=September 1, 2024 |title=The Alchemy of William Blake: The Three Principles of the Divine Essence and An Allegory on the Spiritual Condition of Man |url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991027021938107026&context=L&vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20alchemy%20of%20William%20blake&offset=0 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=The Bodleian Libraries}}</ref> * Osborne, M.R., ''The Threefold Anglican Ministry in the Writings of Thomas Cranmer, Richard Hooker and Jeremy Taylor'' (Whitestone Esoteric, 2024, {{ISBN|979-8-89660-925-4}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''William Laud (1573–1645) Writings the Church, Ministry and Sacraments'' (Whitestone Esoteric, 2024, {{ISBN|979-8-89660-627-7}}) * Osborne, M.R., ''Rosicrucian Death - The Manner and Meaning of Death in Modern Rosicrucianism'' (Rose Circle Publications, 2025) {{ISBN|978-1-0369677-03}} * Osborne, M.R., ''John Thornborough - Lithotheorikos, Sive Nivhil, Aliquid, Omnia'' (Whitestone Esoteric, 2026) {{ISBN|978-1036960056}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{official website|http://mrosborne.org/}} * [https://rosecirclebooks.com/published-books/ Published Books – Rose Circle Books] * [https://srialondon.org/publications/ Publications - SRIA London] * [https://www.esswe.org/Sys/PublicProfile/65080797/PhotoAlbums/52150 ESSWE - European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism] * [https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5555-6286 ORCID] * [https://bham.academia.edu/MROsborne M.R. Osborne | University of Birmingham - Academia.edu] * [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/issues/current-issue TLS | December 20 / 27, 2024 | Book reviews, essays and more.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, M.R.}} Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:English writers