Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation

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. Book jacket.

Henrik Bogdan teaches in the Department of Religious Studies and Theology at Goteborg University in Sweden

List of Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Western Esotericism	p. 5
Introduction	p. 5
The Delimitation of a Field of Research	p. 6
The Research Paradigms of Western Esotericism	p. 9
Western Esotericism in Theory and Practice	p. 17
Western Esoteric Currents	p. 20
Western Esoteric Rituals of Initiation	p. 23
Concluding Remarks	p. 25
Rituals of Initiation, Secret Societies, and Masonic Initiatory Societies	p. 27
Ritual as a Field of Research	p. 27
Rites de Passage	p. 30
Rites of Initiation	p. 35
Secret Societies	p. 40
Secrecy and Masonic Initiatory Societies	p. 44
Masonic Initiatory Societies	p. 49
Masonic Rituals of Initiation	p. 50
Eighteenth-Century Masonic Terminology	p. 51
Concluding Remarks	p. 52
Historical Background	p. 53
Ancient and Medieval Sources	p. 53
The "New Platonic Academy" of Florence	p. 54
The Spread of Western Esotericism across Europe	p. 57
The Esoteric Missions of Giordano Bruno and John Dee	p. 60
Christian Rosenkreutz and the Rosicrucian Manifestos	p. 63
Concluding Remarks	p. 65
The Craft Degrees of Freemasonry	p. 67
The Emergence of Freemasonry	p. 67
Early Freemasonry and Western Esotericism	p. 70
The Pre-1730 Ritual Evidence	p. 76
The Master Mason Degree and the Ritual Enactment of the Hiramic Legend	p. 85
Concluding Remarks	p. 93
High or Additional Degrees of Freemasonry	p. 95
Introduction	p. 95
Templar and Ecossais Rites	p. 95
Egyptian Rites	p. 100
"Esoteric" Freemasonry	p. 103
True Mason, or Academie des Vrais Macons	p. 107
Concluding Remarks	p. 119
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn	p. 121
Introduction	p. 121
History	p. 124
A Note on Sources	p. 127
Description of the Neophyte Ritual	p. 128
Analysis of the Neophyte Ritual	p. 137
Concluding Remarks	p. 143
Modern Pagan Witchcraft or Wicca	p. 145
Gerald Gardner and the Birth of Wicca	p. 145
The Crowley Connection	p. 148
Gardner and the Witchcraft Rituals of Initiation	p. 153
First Degree: Witch and Priestess/Priest	p. 155
The First Degree Initiation	p. 157
Second Degree: High Priestess/Priest	p. 160
Third Degree: High Priestess/Priest	p. 164
Concluding Remarks	p. 167
Conclusions	p. 169
Appendix	p. 173
Notes	p. 175
References	p. 209
Index	p. 225
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Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation

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