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This fascinating book explains to the reader the multitude of symbolism present in Freemasonry, and discusses the truths, facts and legends behind the world's most famous 'secret' society. An excellent read both for members of the masonic movement and those interested in finding out more about its history, this book will answer many of your questions. It was originally published in 1882 and has now been converted and updated by Andrews UK especially for today's digital eBook platforms.

A Noble Fight examines the metaphors and meanings behind the African American appropriation of the culture, ritual, and institution of freemasonry in navigating the contested terrain of American democracy. Combining cultural and political theory with extensive archival research--including the discovery of a rare collection of nineteenth-century records of an African American Freemason Lodge--Corey D. B. Walker provides an innovative perspective on American politics and society during the long transition from slavery to freedom._x000B__x000B_With great care and detail, Walker argues that African American freemasonry provides a critical theoretical lens for understanding the distinctive ways African Americans have constructed a radically democratic political imaginary through racial solidarity and political nationalism, forcing us to reconsider much more circumspectly the complex relationship between voluntary associations and democratic politics._x000B__x000B_Mapping the discursive logics of the language of freemasonry as a metaphoric rendering of American democracy, this study interrogates the concrete forms of an associational culture, revealing how paradoxical aspects of freemasonry such as secrecy and public association inform the production of particular ideas and expressions of democracy in America.

This book details a philosophical approach to Freemasonry and a Freemasonic approach to philosophy. It provides a system of esoteric work, interdisciplinary education, philosophical reflection, and social and political thought, and a method of understanding the reality of the world and the reality of consciousness. The actual state of Freemasonry is overtaken by inherent old conceptions, but this book looks to take Freemasonry from where it is to where it has never been. Thus, it exposes the Ritual of the \"Modern and Perfecting Rite of Symbolic Masonry,\" composed by the author, and it explains the ethos, the structure, and the substantive content of the Autonomous Order of the Modern and Perfecting Rite of Symbolic Masonry, of which the author is the Founder and Grand Master. The book expresses a keen longing for unifying, all-embracing knowledge and for instituting a Freemasonic system that creates, unites, and supports polymaths for the sake of knowledge and a better world order. As such, it presents a creative synthesis between Western esotericism, philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, political theory, political economy, mathematics, physics, and biology.

Camaldolese monk from Cremona Isidoro Bianchi (1735-1808) was an important figure of Lombard culture in the second half of the 18th century. His adherence to the Masonic viewpoint, especially that of < > ancestry, matured during his stay in the Kingdom of Naples, between 1769 and 1773, while his admiration for the countries of Northern Europe took shape mainly during his stay in Copenhagen, between 1774 and 1776. These experiences conditioned Bianchi's culture, and later, upon his return to Lombardy, he became a theorist and promoter of the normal method. Keywords. Isidoro Bianchi--Normal method--Borealism--Freemasonry

Friendship, an acquired relationship primarily based on choice rather than birth, lay at the heart of Enlightenment preoccupations with sociability and the formation of the private sphere. InBrotherly Love, Kenneth Loiselle argues that Freemasonry is an ideal arena in which to explore the changing nature of male friendship in Enlightenment France. Freemasonry was the largest and most diverse voluntary organization in the decades before the French Revolution. At least fifty thousand Frenchmen joined lodges, the memberships of which ranged across the social spectrum from skilled artisans to the highest ranks of the nobility. Loiselle argues that men were attracted to Freemasonry because it enabled them to cultivate enduring friendships that were egalitarian and grounded in emotion. Drawing on scores of archives, including private letters, rituals, the minutes of lodge meetings, and the speeches of many Freemasons, Loiselle reveals the thought processes of the visionaries who founded this movement, the ways in which its members maintained friendships both within and beyond the lodge, and the seemingly paradoxical place women occupied within this friendship community. Masonic friendship endured into the tumultuous revolutionary era, although the revolutionary leadership suppressed most of the lodges by 1794. Loiselle not only examines the place of friendship in eighteenth-century society and culture but also contributes to the history of emotions and masculinity, and the essential debate over the relationship between the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

Did the Freemasons consciously affect the geographical growth of the USA in order to invest the layout of the states with a deeper, symbolic meaning? The narrative concentrates on the development of Masonic ritual during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—especially their description of the 'ideal building' or Temple—the concurrent construction of America and the role Freemasons played in it, and the emergence of a simple but highly symbolic mathematical formula that recurs regularly throughout the history of the Republic. Maps and diagrams illustrate the surprising coherence of the theory.

The network of freemasons and Masonic lodges in the Middle East is an opaque and mysterious one, and is all too often seen – within the area n as a vanguard for Western purposes of regional domination. But here, Dorothe Sommer explains how freemasonry in Greater Syria at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century actually developed a life of its own, promoting local and regional identities. She stresses that during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, freemasonry was actually one of the first institutions in what is now Syria and Lebanon which overcame religious and sectarian divisions. Indeed, the lodges attracted more participants n such as the members of the Trad and Yaziji Family, Khaireddeen Abdulwahab, Hassan Bayhum, Alexander Barroudi and Jurji Yanni – than any other society or fraternity.

Freemasonry is the largest, oldest, and most influential secret society in the world. The Brill Handbook of Freemasonry is a pioneering work that brings together, for the first time, leading scholars on Freemasonry. The first section covers historical perspectives, such as the origins and early history of Freemasonry. The second deals with the relationship between Freemasonry and specific religious traditions such as the Catholic Church, Judaism, and Islam. In the third section, organisational themes, such as the use of rituals, are explored, while the fourth section deals with issues related to society and politics - women, blacks, colonialism, nationalism, and war. The fifth and final section is devoted to Freemasonry and culture, including music, literature, modern art, architecture and material culture.

Based on primary sources, this book analyses the historical creation, contents and development of the rituals of the Adoption Rite, with which women were initiated into Freemasonry since 1744. It gives a completely new perspective on this chapter of women's history.

Michael T. Coughlin theorizes the possibility of interpreting art and architectural form as an index for Logos in Early Modern Italy, while simultaneously proposing a theory about the origin of Freemasonry from a historical perspective.