August Vandekerkhove

painter (1838-1923)

August Vandekerkhove (15 October 1838 Kanegem – 24 March 1923 Mâcon) was a Belgian writer, playwright, poet, painter and inventor. He wrote under the pseudonym S.U. Zanne. Vandekerkhove started a movement he called Cosmosofie (Cosmosophy). He said that Cosmosophy was the opposite of Theosophy. When he was young he wrote a novel and three plays. His literary work was inspired by ethics and psychology. Later he moved to Scotland, the USA and France.

August Vandekerkhove
Seal of the Cosmosophic Movement

In France he wrote works on kabala, esotericism and the occult. He was one of the first writers talking about subjects like feminism and the Age of Aquarius. Each year on Palm Sunday at 5 PM, at the cemetery of Flacé in Mâcon in France, people come together to remember him.

Publications change

In Dutch language change

Novel change

  • Een zomerlief (A Summer Love), (1864)

Plays change

  • Een eerlijk man (A Honest Man), (1870) - Reprinted in Dutch in the USA
  • De vrouwenhater (The woman's hater) (1865)
  • Freule Laura's laatste liefde (Lady Laura's Last Love)

In French language change

Private editions for his disciples at less than 30 copies change

  • Doctrine Secrète, principes et éléments d'astrologie, 554 pages, (1900)
  • L'Asataruth du Pfar-Isis, (1900) - Reprinted in French in Italy (2004)
  • Principes et éléments Cosmosophie, (1899-1906)

Public editions change

  • Vingt-quatre cours introductoires-préparatoires aux principes et éléments de Cosmosophie, (1909)
  • Principes et éléments d'Education Cosmosophique, (1924)
  • Occultisme occidental et ésotérisme oriental, (1927)
  • Principes et éléments de la Langue Sacrée selon l'Astro-Kabbale d'Al Chami, (1929)
  • L'Atlantide,(1931)
  • Lettres des Pays de l'Au-Delà, (1933)