TOBIAS CHURTON


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BIOGRAPHY


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Born in Sutton Coldfield to an ancient Cheshire family, in 1960, Tobias Churton spent two years in Australia from 1966 to 1968 and returned to attend his fifth school, Lichfield Cathedral School. Three schools later he won an exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied Theology. Compelled to exchange a vocation to the priesthood for the lowlier prospect of a career in television, he first came to public notice with the 1987 Channel 4 production, GNOSTICS. The 4-part, drama-documentary went out at peak time on Saturday nights. It won the New York TV Festival Gold Award for best religious series. Churton’s Channel 4/Weidenfeld & Nicolson book accompanying the series was a best seller.

Long before Dan Brown scored a hit with The Da Vinci Code, Tobias Churton introduced a popular audience to the authentic world of esoteric mysteries. In the words of Dutch scholar, Gilles Quispel, the TV series would “change the minds of millions”. Churton presented the facts, not the fantasy. Swedish theologian Jan-Arvid Hellström hailed Churton as a “religious genius” while Amsterdam bibliophile and industrialist Joost Ritman enthusiastically greeted the appearance of a new “writing star”.

The success of The Gnostics allowed Tobias to concentrate his energies on his first love: writing. After years of voluminous reading, mystical experience and creative endeavour, Churton had much to express.

Album Session

Recording "A SPELL INSIDE" album with vocalist Merovée Churton

Having completed his twenty-fifth book commission, Tobias Churton is today internationally recognized for his insightful books on esoteric, spiritual history, Art and philosophy. Accessible and scholarly, Churton’s works address believers and doubters alike and, remarkably, have stimulated spiritual experiences in some readers. He has successfully widened the appeal of so-called “esoteric” spirituality. Churton’s warm style and depth of knowledge have entertained many thousands of readers in the process. Tobias is also a filmmaker, lecturer, poet and musician. He has recently recorded his orchestrated score for his prospective dramatic project, William Blake: Love is on Fire!, while his musical about Nancy Cunard and Henry Crowder, YOU, ME AND YESTERDAY, co-written with artist and songwriter John Myatt, was performed to great acclaim at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre in 2011. He has composed and recorded eight albums of original music.


A CAREER (in brief)

2023 The First Alchemists (Inner Traditions International)
2022 Aleister Crowley in Paris (Inner Traditions International)
2021 Aleister Crowley in England (Inner Traditions International)
Eight hours of TV drama scripts: BELLE ÉPOQUE
Album: Belle Époque
2020 The Lost Pillars of Enoch (Inner Traditions International)
2019 Aleister Crowley in India (Inner Traditions International)
Invited to participate in The Enoch Seminar by Prof. Gabriele Boccaccini, in Florence, June 2019.)
Album: The Other Side
2018 The Spiritual Meaning of the Sixties (Inner Traditions International)
Album: The Past is like a Dream
2017 Aleister Crowley in America
Deconstructing Gurdjieff
Album: Framed
2016 Occult Paris
Album: What Fools these Mortals Be
2015 Jerusalem! The Real Life of William Blake
Gnostic Mysteries of Sex
Album: A Spell Inside
2014 Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin
Album: Canso
2013 The Babylon Gene (novel)
Album: William Blake—Love is on Fire!
2012The Mysteries of John the Baptist
Album: If you could See
2011 Aleister Crowley: The Biography
YOU ME AND YESTERDAY; Musical composed with John Myatt, performed by Lichfield Cathedral School: Garrick Theatre, Lichfiel
2010 The Missing Family of Jesus
2009 The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians
2008 Kiss of Death: The True History of the Gospel of Judas
2007 Freemasonry: The Reality
2006 The Magus of Freemasonry: The Mysterious Life of Elias Ashmole
2005 Gnostic Philosophy
Appointed Honorary Fellow, Exeter University;
Faculty Lecturer: Exeter Centre for the Study of Western Esotericism (Prof. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.)
2004 The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians and the first Free Masons
2003 The True Story of the Rosicrucians (Documentary)
2002 Elias Ashmole and the Initiation (Drama-documentary)
2001 Jack Brown and the Curse of the Crown (Ancient Egyptian dialogue and coaching for British movie; Little Wing Films
1997-2000 Founder Editor: Freemasonry Today magazine
1996 Initiation (Director-Writer: sell-through video documentary with Columba Powell as Elias Ashmole)
The Fear of Vision (poetry)
1994-1995 The Gatecrashers (original comedy movie script with Columba Powell, backed by Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell and the European Script Fund.)
1991-1993 Developing TV documentary projects in Sweden and UK. Accepted by Bishop Jan-Arvid Hellström (Växjö) for Ordination in the Church of Sweden (aborted).
1989-1990 Development of Rosicrucian documentary for Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam
1989 The New Age and the New Man (director of film for Stichting Teleac, Utrecht)
1989 Miraval—A Quest (novel)
1988 No Man hath Seen God (Director/Presenter, film documentary for Channel 4 TV)
1987 The Gnostics (Weidenfeld & Nicolson/Channel 4 Books)
1987 William Blake, Love is on Fire! (Director/Writer/Composer; development of film for Channel 4 TV)
1985-1987 GNOSTICS (deviser, co-writer, researcher, drama scripts, 4 part TV series for Channel 4; Border TV)
1985 Why I am still an Anglican (Editor, for Collins Books)
John Lennon: A Journey in the Life (Researcher, co-writer: drama film for BBC Everyman, starring Roy Orbison, Roger Waters, Bernard Hill, Andy Fairweather-Low, Peter Cook, Carl Wayne, John Gustaffson, GB Zoot Money, Linda Thompson, Edwin Starr, Stanley Unwin, Helen Shapiro, Screaming Lord Sutch, Bill Harry, Derek Taylor.)
1984 Apocalypse (Researcher for documentary for Channel 4 TV)
Peace (Researcher for Thames TV Christmas series)
1983 The Elastic Church (Researcher, co-writer documentary for Channel 4 TV)
1982 Alternativen FRG (pioneering documentary development on German Greens for BBC TV)
1980 Ipsissimus (play; direction; Brasenose Players: Balliol Lindsay Rooms, Oxford University)
1978-1981 Brasenose College, Oxford University (M.A. Hons. Theology)