Jorge Ángel Livraga Rizzi was an Argentinian poet, novelist, self-taught philosopher, essayist, educator and lecturer of Italian heritage best known for having founded and directed New Acropolis, an international philosophical educational and cultural organisation according to its members, and a far-rightparamilitary and/or religious cult according to its critics. His works have been translated into several languages, titles in English include the novels The Alchemist and Ankor, the Last Prince of Atlantis, as well as The Spirits of Nature and Thebes, two studies on esotericism. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and died in Madrid, Spain. Livraga was convicted for illegal arm possession in 1988 by Madrid's Provincial Court.
Biography
His mother, Victoria Rizzi, and his father, Ángel Livraga, an industrial engineer, were of Italian origin whose families had emigrated to Argentina in the late 19th century;. Livraga's father died when he was 15, and this led to a spiritual crisis, where, via his English teacher, he eventually came into contact with the ArgentineTheosophical Society in the early fifties. He was a member of the Theosophical Society from 1950 to 1962. At some point, he founded the magazine Estudios Teosóficos with Ada Albrecht, and founded New Acropolis, an association intended to promote Philosophy, along the lines of the classical Schools of Philosophy, such as Plato’s Academy. Livraga began to expand New Acropolis to other Latin American countries: Uruguay, Chile, Perú, Brasil and Bolivia. Livraga's activities during this period consisted in writing the extensive course manuals. He also had an interest in archeology, regularly organizing private expeditions and maintained a collection housed in a private museum, the Rodrigo Caro Museum. After his death, his natal home in Buenos Aires was converted into a museum in his name.
Claims
His official New Acropolis biography claims that he was an academic member of the Esoteric group known as the International Philo-Byzantine Academy and University that according to the James Randi Foundation gives doctorates in Divinity, and the New Acropolis-related publishing house International Burckhardt Academy in Italy. It also claims that he was a knight of the fictional Real Orden de San Ildefonso y San Atilano, and a recipient of the silver cross from the Société Académique Arts Sciences Lettres, nevertheless apart from his New Acropolis biography no second hand source confirms such claims. His official biography use to list him as archeologist and doctor in philosophy from the inexistent Aztec Academy of Arts, but once such Academy was proven to be fictional the claim was retired. His official biography often claims that he won the Argentine National Poetry Prize with his book Lotuses, however no source of such claim exists outside of New Acropolis and he's not listed as such in any source of the Argentinean government.
