Occult:This month in history/December

Occultist Damien Echols

• December - The Rider-Waite Tarot is published for the first time. (1909)
• 1 December - Czech occultist and author Franz Bardon is born. (1909)
• 1 December - Occultist and author Aleister Crowley dies of chronic bronchitis. (1947)
• 5 December - Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes affectibus, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany. (1484)
• 6 December - Transit of Venus, second and last of the 19th century. (1882)
• 6 December - Birth of Dion Fortune, a Welsh occultist, psychologist, and author. (1890)
• 9 December - The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City. (1531)
• 9 December - Birth of Hélène Smith, a French psychic and occultist. (1861)
• 11 December - Author and occultist Damien Echols is born. (1974)
• 13 December - Occultist Johannes Trithemius is born. (1516)
• 17 December - The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome. (497 BC)
• 17 December - The tomb of Marie Laveau in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is vandalized by an unknown person. (2013)
• 19 December - Edward Kelley performs his first alchemical transmutation. (1586)
• 21 December - A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623. (2020)
• 21/22 December - winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
• 25 December - A temple to Sol Invictus is dedicated in Rome by Emperor Aurelian. (274)
• 30 December - Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin is murdered by a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov. (1916)
• 31 December - Birth of Simon Forman, an English occultist and astrologer. (1552)