Six degrees
This week marks the feast day of Drogo, the 12th-century hermit. Born into Flemish nobility, Drogo was racked with guilt over his mother's death during his birth. As penitence, he embraced poverty and became a shepherd and pilgrim. After an illness left him hideously deformed, Drogo stayed in a hut in Sebourg, France, for 40 years until his death so others would be spared the sight of his face. This earned him a nod from the church, which dubbed him the patron saint of, among other things, hernias; gall stones; 'those whom others find unspeakably repulsive'; and coffee-shop owners ...
The world's most ubiquitous coffee-shop owner, Starbucks, has or leases to franchisees 16,635 stores in 49 countries. Despite the firm's claims of social responsibility, a 2008 investigation by The Sun newspaper revealed the company wasted 23 million litres of water every day - enough to meet the daily needs of Namibia. The Nasdaq-listed firm was named after the first mate in Herman Melville's epic novel Moby-Dick ...
First published in 1851, the story recounts the tales of the sailor Ishmael. Originally misunderstood by readers, the work is now considered a treasure of world literature. The allegorical novel has endured in modern culture, with the title being borrowed in 1969 for an instrumental by Led Zeppelin founder, Jimmy Page ...
Despite his tireless charity work, Page nurtured a dark side. In the early 1970s, the heroin-addicted musician owned an occult bookstore and publishing house in London before the pressures of the band forced him to close them. His fascination with the dark arts remained undiminished, with the musician buying clothing, manuscripts, ritual objects and even a house - on the shores of Scotland's Loch Ness - that had all belonged to influential occultist Aleister Crowley ...
Espousing his philosophy of 'Do What Thou Wilt', the bisexual Crowley (above) developed a reputation as an anti-hero, indulging in hedonism and drugs. A veracious social critic, poet, mountaineer and competitive chess player, the man dubbed 'The Great Beast' by his mother, whom he detested, founded the Thelema religion. 'The Wickedest Man in the World', as the press called him, was also said to be capable of bilocation ...
Bilocation is a term used to describe instances in which an individual appears in two places at the same time. It appears in Greek philosophy, shamanism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jewish mysticism. Christianity has claimed several practitioners, including a lowly French shepherd who would eventually have greatness thrust upon him, earning him the title St Drogo of Sebourg.
