Western esotericism and rituals of initiation / Henrik Bogdan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bogdan, Henrik.

Series:

SUNY series in Western esoteric traditions.

SUNY series in Western esoteric traditions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Freemasonry.

Initiation rites.

Occultism.

Wicca.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For more than three hundred years the practice of Masonic rituals of initiation has been part of Western culture, spreading far beyond the boundaries of traditional Freemasonry. Henrik Bogdan explores the historical development of these rituals and their relationship with Western esotericism. Beginning with the Craft degrees of Freemasonry—the blueprints, as it were, of all later Masonic rituals of initiation—Bogdan examines the development of the Masonic High Degrees, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—the most influential of all nineteenth-century occultist initiatory societies—and Gerald Gardner's Witchcraft movement of the 1950s, one of the first large-scale Western esoteric New Religions Movements.

Contents:

Western esotericism

Rituals of initiation, secret societies

Historical background

The craft degrees of Freemasonry

High or additional degrees of Freemasonry

The Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn

Modern pagan witchcraft or wicca.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780791480106

0791480100

9781429471558

1429471557

OCLC:

140200220