American writer, publisher, Freemason, astrologer, poet and illustrator.
On his fathers side, he was a descendent of John Stow (c. 1525 – 6 April 1605), an English historian and antiquarian best known for his 1598 Survey of London. On his mothers side he claims te be descendent of the Dutch Van Slyke family, who were early settlers that married Mohawk Indians. His parents decided to let their children think for themselves, he wrote in his spiritual autobiography: “I should have stated my father was a Universalist, my mother ran the gamut of religious beliefs, and died an Agnostic; their children were taught to think for themselves.”
Though he is not mentioned in any Wikipedia his ADB editor knows, his books influenced many spiritual teachers and astrologers. In so far he is a seemingly forgotten first in field Free thinker, writing about Karma, Gnosticism and the Esoteric Bible. He took a strong view in “The historical Jesus” debate, that was started by David Friedrich Strauss with his scandalous book “Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet” (1835, The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined). Strauss still believed in the historical Jesus, but according to Stowe, Matthews wholly prayer (containing an “as above and below” statement), St Paul (“Christ within me”) and the New and Old testament Bible (12 disciples, 12 stems of Israel) spoke about the occult science of astrology. But his vision was not popular at that time and he had to establish his own Lodge (American Occult Research Society) and Publishing company to publish his occult works.
In the foreword of his spiritual autobiography “Karmenia or What the Spirit told me, better known as Visions of the Battlefield” (4-4-1918), at age 75/12/3 he wrote: “I believe I am safe in saying I have had a broader experience in these lines than any other man that ever investigated the subject. Why I have been ostracized and kept from the press and the public eye will readily be seen by the reader of my books, “What is Coming” and my “Bible Astrology” as these subjects are not popular and that selfishness and bigotry that has caused the world to crawl over the prejudice of knaves, bigots and fools, in all ages, discourages and retards invention and investigation, and makes the road of the genius and the philosopher a hard road to travel, until he scores success, and then they who hindered his progress are ready to bend the knee and bow the head to mammon and smile and smirk under the banners they besmeared. ”
He believed he was born as a “I know it” clairvoyant medium: “I was born in the sign Aries, the 20th degree of Gemini, rising—thus bringing two-thirds of the clairvoyant sign Cancer under the 30 degrees of the ascendant, with the Moon 14 degrees in Taurus, and Uranus on the cusp of Aries, which gives me my strong spiritual and clairvoyant powers.” Maybe his Ephemeris given in “Astrology Simplified & Life Delineator” was not that correct.
Some books of him that can be found on-line or are still in reprint (the actual year can be elder than the eldest years of publication the editor found):
1884 Poetical drifts of thought; or, problems of progress. Treating upon the mistakes of the church … reconciliation of science and Christianity … Embellished with nearly 200 illustrations. Together with a number of fine poems on popular subjects.
1895 My Wife Nellie And I. A Poetical Sketch of Love and Fancy with other Poems, Including Blank Lines for Autograph.
1896 What is coming is a wonderful exposition of the prophecies and comparison with ancient and modern historical and political events, together with an ample, though concise history of money from King Solomon’s time to the present.
1896 Finance in Prophecy.
1898 Certificate of Membership American Occult Research Society.
1907 Stowe’s Bible Astrology (the Bible Founded on Astrology) also containing “The Riddle Of The Sphinx”.
1907 Right Hours to Success with Hour Dial.
1909 Astro Periodicity, Vol. 2.
1918 Karmenia: Or What The Spirit Told Me “Truth Stranger Than Fiction”.
Not dated works: The Story Of The Christian Religion Enacted By The Sun And Stars Every Year, Parallels Of The Old Testament: Passages And Truths In Astrology, World’s Wonder Or, Astro-kabala, Astrology Simplified and Life Delineator.