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==Occult career==
{{BLP sources section|date=December 2022}}
[[File:Rune-Gild logo.png|thumb|right|Logo of the Rune-Gild with [[Elder Futhark]] and [[Triskelion]]]]
In June 1974, while riding in the backseat of a car from Houston to Austin, Flowers says that he heard the sound ''roonah''. He said that the experience was the first milestone in his journey.<ref>"The drive home to Austin was a silent one. I sat in the back seat, dozing. Then, audibly, in my ear I Heard the sound (''roonah''), which is the Word, ''RÛNA''. At once I knew what the word referred to: the Germanic writing system of pre-Christian times...[I] went to the library of the [[University of Texas at Austin]]...I checked out a wide variety of books on the subject of [[runes]]...This volatile mixture of books, most of which had not been opened or read for years, was the first milestone of my journey. The way was opened when the Word signifying the ultimate Mystery was whispered in my ear, as it resonated over the eternal cycle of Ages." Stephen Edred Flowers, ''RÛNARMÂL I: The Runa-Talks: Summer 1991ev'', Lodestar, 2017, p. 13.</ref>{{Third-party inline|date=July 2024}} In 1978 Flowers joined the [[Ásatrú Folk Assembly|Asatru Free Assembly]] (currently Asatru Folk Assembly, the largest neo-Völkisch hate organization in the US<ref>{{Cite web |title=Asatru Folk Assembly |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/asatru-folk-assembly |access-date=2023-09-24 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}</ref>) where he was one of the earliest members, with membership number 072.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
In May 1979 he founded the Austin "skeppslag" (later kindred) of the AFA. In 1980 he was initiated as a [[goði]] by [[Stephen A. McNallen]]. In Yule-Tide 1979/80 Flowers founded the ''Rune-Gild'', an initiatory order focused on "the revival of the elder Runic" tradition, advocating [[runic magic]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
On November 11, 1983, he founded a small group to explore what he saw as the dark, futuristic undercurrent of Odinism called ''The Order of Shining Trapezohedron'' or "O.S.T." (Order of the Shining Trapezoid) which closed on January 13, 1984.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
In February 1984 he became a member of the [[Temple of Set]], being recognized to the Second Degree of Adept and to the Priesthood (III°) on October 7, 1984. On November 14, 1986, he was recognized as a Magister Templi (IV°). In November 1987 the AFA (old AFA) collapsed, and on December 20, Flowers founded the Ring of Troth.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
The leadership<ref>“Mother Night refers to the first twelve nights of the Yule celebration...The ceremony itself was a simple one. Only Flowers and Chisholm were present at the ceremonial site, a stone altar behind Flowers’s house in Austin. Flowers ‘invested’ Chisholm with the steersmanship of the RoT by transferring to him with “appropriate words” several symbols of the foundation of the religion: a Thor’s hammer which Flowers had worn to the first Ásatrú Free Assembly Althing in 1979, a stone from the Assembly Rock in Iceland, and a twig from an ash tree taken from the site of the last functioning temple of the Old religion at Uppsala, Sweden. This ended with “the declaration that the Ring of Troth was hereby founded with the aim of reestablishing the ancestral faith of the Germanic peoples” (interview with Flowers, 15 April 1993). James R. Lewis, ''Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft'', Syracuse University Press, 1996. p.231, n. 41.</ref> fell to James Allen Chisholm, with Flowers remaining as a spiritual advisor. In 1989 a man named Robert Meek and others began a campaign against Flowers, “exposing” him of practicing dark arts and being a member of the Temple of Set, although this was well known within the Asatru community and was never a secret. It was also during this time that the 18-year ban on manifestation of the Order of the Triskelion (Triskelenorden) was lifted - an organization for the practice of operant Sadeanism and Carnal Alchemy, founded in early 1991 by Flowers and Dawn.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
In March 1992 the administrative power of the Ring of Troth was handed over to Prudence Priest and a full contingency of Rede members by Chisholm, which gave Flowers the ability to spend most of his time to matters pertaining to the Rune-Gild. In 1993 Flowers and Dawn bought 30 acres of wilderness east of Austin and adjacent to [[Buescher State Park]], named Woodharrow, on which the future history of the Gild and of the many of Flowers's many other undertakings would be written. At the end of 1993 they moved to Woodharrow and over the next two years built up the physical facilities on the land where a meeting hall was erected and completed in 1996.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}
Flowers has established or been associated with the publishing companies named Rûna-Raven Press (c. 1993-2015), Lodestar Books (c. 2011-2019), and Arcana Europa Media (c. 2020-present).{{Third-party inline|date=July 2024|reason=third-party RS needed for verification, context and due weight}} As Thorsson, he has been published by [[Arktos Media|Arktos]].<ref name=":1" />
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