Freemasons: History Includes Secrecy, Ritual, Sex
David M. Kinchen, Apr 18, 2010
Reviewed by David M. Kinchen
English historian David Harrison, PhD, explores the origins of Freemasonry in a scholarly but very readable book The Genesis of Freemasonry (Lewis Masonic, an imprint of Ian Allan Publishing Ltd., Hersham, Surrey, England, 244 pages, $31.95, available on Amazon.com and other online booksellers).
Harrison sent me a review copy of his book after reading my reviews of books on Freemasonry on this site. He suggested that it would be useful to understand the intellectual underpinnings of Freemasonry via a scholarly book like his. As I write this review, I’m watching a program on American Freemasonry on the History Channel, which has an endless fascination with the subject, along with the Illuminati and the Knights Templar.
PERFECTIBILISTS: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati
The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship
Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism
Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith
America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones
May 12th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Another book I will have to find room for then. I’m running out of space. Related to the topic the following book by David Stevenson is on my to get list:
The Beggar’s Benison: Sex Clubs of Enlightenment Scotland
Description:
“Two clubs, dedicated to proclaiming the joys of libertine sex, thrived in mid and late 18th-century Scotland. The Beggar’s Benison (1732), starting from local roots in Fife, became large and sprawling, with branches in Edinburgh, Glasgow - and St Petersburg. As a toast “The Beggar’s Benison” was drunk at aristocratic dinners in London as a coded reference to sex, and the Prince of Wales (later George IV) became a member. In Edinburgh, also, the Wig Club (1775) gave the elite of the Scottish Tory establishment a forum in which to dine, gamble and venerate a wig supposedly made of the pubic hairs of the mistresses of Charles II. Both clubs flourished in a great age of raucous clubs in which bawdy often played a prominent part, and both died as changes in sensibility made such behaviour seem gross and unacceptable. As the Victorian age approached, the clubs withered away under its disapproving glare. In this book, the author tells the story of these clubs, analyzes the obscene relics of their rituals which survive, and places the clubs in their social, cultural and political contexts. It is an extensively researched study, but at the same time recognizes the entertainment value of the many anecdotes concerning the clubs, the absurdities inherent in the antics of club rituals, and the appeal of the bawdy.
May 12th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Wow! I wasn’t even aware of them, nor the book. These guys should really study Sabbateanism and the Kabbalistic antimonian current. There are connections to Freemasonry and other occult groups that have been fleshed out by both Gershom Scholem and Marsha Schuchard. Swedenborg and William Blake too were involved.