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"Adam Parfrey is one of the nation's most provocative publishers."—Seattle Weekly "Secret society historian Craig Heimbichner follows the Middle Path to wisdom. He works the graveyard shift in the secret lodge."—Joan d'Arc, Paranoia magazine Secret societies—now a staple of bestseller novels—are pictured as sinister cults that use hooded albinos to menace truth-seekers. Some conspiracy books claim that fraternal orders are the work of serpentine aliens and interbred humans who wish to supplant earth of its energy, and later, its very existence. On the other side of the aisle, books by high-ranked Freemasons—skeptical in tone but no less partisan in approach—protect their organization's public image by denying the existence of its most contentious ideas. Ritual America reveals the biggest secret of them all: that the influence of fraternal brotherhoods on this country is vast, fundamental, and hidden in plain view. In the early twentieth century, as many as one-third of America belonged to a secret society. And though fezzes and tiny car parades are almost a thing of the past, the Gnostic beliefs of Masonic orders are now so much a part of the American mind that the surrounding pomp and circumstance has become faintly unnecessary. The authors of Ritual America contextualize hundreds of rare and many never-before printed images with entertaining and far-reaching commentary, making an esoteric subject provocative, exciting, and approachable. Adam Parfrey is the author of Cult Rapture: Revelations of the Apocalyptic Mind and It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps. He is editor of the influential Apocalypse Culture series Love, Sex, Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment. Craig Heimbichner has recently appeared on a National Geographic documentary about the Bohemian Grove, contributed to the Feral House compilation Secret and Suppressed II, and wrote about the famous occult order the O.T.O. in Blood and Altar.

Dr. Albert G. Mackey, also the author of The Lexicon of Freemasonry appears as author of this " Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences," which, being a library in inself, superseded most of the Masonic works which have been tolerated by the craft—chiefly because none better could be obtained. Here, in one giant volume is a work which fulfils the hope which sustained the author through ten years' literary labor, that, under one cover he "would furnish every Mason who might consult its pages the means of acquiring a knowledge of all matters connected with the science, the philosophy, and the history of his order." For more than thirty years Dr. Mackey has devoted earnest and constant study and research to the history, the objects, and the condition of Masonry. In the present work, the crowning and successful result of a life's labors, he has received no assistance from any one. He says, " Every article was written by myself," and he adds, which would extenuate errors, had he fallen into any, "For twelve months, too, of the time occupied upon this work, I suffered from an affection of the sight, which forbade all use of the eyes for purposes of study. During that time, now happily passed, all authorities were consulted by the willing eyes of my daughters—all writing was done by their hands. I realized for a time the picture so often painted of the blind bard dictating his sublime verses to his daughters," and his preface closes with the words, "Were I to dedicate this work at all, my dedication should be—To Filial Affection." Up to the present time the modern literature of Freemasonry has been diffuse, lumbering, unreliable, and, out of all reasonable proportions.

An in-depth look at the work of the Worshipful Master. A lewis Masonic Handbook.

This is one of the most successful Masonic Publications in recent times due to the immense knowledge of the late Harry Carr and his entertaining writing style. If you enjoy your masonry then this book will bring a new delight to all that you see and hear in lodge. When Harry Carr became secretary and editor of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge of Research, the answering of lodge questions became a major part of his duties. In a style that became a hall mark of all his masonic writing, he always answered a little more than the original question. In response to hundreds of requests from all over the world, the answers he gave to questions during his twelve years office as editor of Quatuor Coronati Transactions have been collected together in this book. Only the best and most interesting subjects are included and every question will be relevant to most brethren in the course of their work in the lodge ? hence the title The Freemason at Work This book was substantially revised by Frederick Smyth, the eminent Masonic author and Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, in 1992; brining the text right up-to-date for much had change since the book was first published in 1976. This is a book to be treasured, one that will provide a wealth of knowledge in an easy to read style. A collection of more than 200 questions with comprehensive answers to all manner of masonic subjects.