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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Associations, clubs, societies > Freemasonry & secret societies
From its traces in cryptic images on the dollar bill to Dan Brown's
The Lost Symbol, Freemasonry has long been one of the most
romanticized secret societies in the world. But a simple fact
escapes most depictions of this elite brotherhood: There are women
Freemasons, too. In this groundbreaking ethnography, Lilith Mahmud
takes readers inside Masonic lodges in contemporary Italy, where
she observes the many ritualistic and fraternal bonds forged among
women initiates of this elite and esoteric society. Offering a
tantalizing look behind lodge doors, The Brotherhood of Freemason
Sisters unveils a complex culture of discretion in which Freemasons
simultaneously reveal some truths and hide others. Women - one of
Freemasonry's best-kept secrets - are often upper class and highly
educated but paradoxically antifeminist, and their self-cultivation
through the Masonic path is an effort to embrace the deeply
gendered ideals of fraternity. Mahmud unravels this contradiction
at the heart of Freemasonry: how it was at once responsible for
many of the egalitarian concepts of the Enlightenment and yet has
always been, and in Italy still remains, extremely exclusive. The
result is not only a thrilling look at an unfamiliar-and
surprisingly influential-world, but a reevaluation altogether of
the modern values and ideals that we now take for granted.
From supreme president to forgotten enemy, John W. Talbot lived a
remarkable life. Charismatic, energetic, and powerful, he founded a
national fraternal organization, the Order of Owls, and counted
senators, congressmen, and business leaders among his friends. He
wielded his influence to help causes close to his heart but also to
bring down those who stood against him. In So Much Bad in the Best
of Us, Greta Fisher's careful research reveals that Talbot was
capable of great evil, causing one woman to describe him as "the
Devil Incarnate." His string of very public affairs revealed his
strange sexual preferences and violent tendencies, and charges
leveled against him included perjury, blackmail, jury tampering,
slander, libel, misuse of the mail, assault with intent to kill,
and White slavery. Ultimately convicted on the slavery charge, he
spent several years in Leavenworth penitentiary and eventually lost
everything, including control of the Order of Owls. His descent
into alcoholism and death by fire was a fitting end to a tumultuous
and dramatic life. After 50 years of newspaper headlines and court
battles, Talbot's death made national news, but with more enemies
than friends and estranged from his family, he was ultimately
forgotten. A gripping true crime story, So Much Bad in the Best of
Us offers a mesmerizing account of the life of John W. Talbot, the
Order of Owls, and how quickly the powerful can fall.
*Shows how this order, also known as oriental Freemasonry,
preserves the ancient spiritual doctrines forgotten by modern
Freemasonry*Explains how to transform the soul into the alchemical
Magnum opus by combining Masonic grips and the abbreviated letters
of the Qur'an*Includes a detailed biography of Baron von
SebottendorffOriginally published in Germany in 1924, this rare
book by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff reveals the secret spiritual
exercises of the Bektashi Order of Sufis as well as how this order,
also known as Oriental Freemasonry, preserves the ancient spiritual
doctrines forgotten by modern Freemasonry. Sebottendorff explains
how the mysterious abbreviated letters found in the Qur'an
represent formulae for perfecting the spirit of the individual.
When combined with Masonic hand signs and grips and conducted
accordingly to a precise schedule, these formulae incorporate
spiritual power into the body and transform the soul from its base
state into a noble, godlike state: the Magnum Opus of the mediaeval
alchemists. Laying out the complete programme of spiritual
exercises, Sebottendorff explains each abbreviated word-formula in
the Qur'an, the hand gestures that go with them and the exact order
and duration for each exercise. Including a detailed biography of
Sebottendorff and an examination of alchemy's Islamic heritage,
this book shows how the traditions of Oriental Freemasonry can
ennoble the self and lead to higher knowledge.
HISTORY / FREEMASONRY Thanks to documents discovered nearly two
hundred years after his death, we now have a fuller picture of the
profound influence that Freemasonry had on the life and work of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Musicologist Jacques Henry shows that the
Masonic influence on Mozart's work goes far beyond pieces such as
The Magic Flute that were overtly Masonic or fulfilled a ritual
purpose for the composer. For those initiated, many of Mozart's
other compositions express the same Masonic ideals no less clearly.
His works actually provide a complete musical lexicon of Masonic
symbols inspired by the principles of the craft and the spirit of
the Masonic quest. Mozart constructed his Masonic compositions by
creating auditory correspondences to the symbols present in the
rituals, choosing keys and tempos that transpose their content into
harmony. His understanding of the use of symbol allowed him to
create music that would lead the listener into a harmony that
transcended earthly existence.A number of musicologists believe
that the place of the Masonic spiritual vision in Mozart's work is
comparable to that held by Lutheran Christianity in the work of
Johann Sebastian Bach. Mozart wed his deep understanding of music
to the esoteric wisdom he gained as a Freemason to show that when
we lose ourselves in the expression of the purest harmony, it is
the same as the symbol being lost in what it symbolizes. Jacques
Henry provides a rigorous and original analysis of Mozart's works
that reveals their inner meaning as shaped by the composer's
profound embrace of the spiritual principles of Freemasonry.Jacques
Henry is artistic director of the annual Mozart festival in the
Drome region ofFrance and an expert on the symbolism in Mozart's
work. He lives in France.
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