Studies on Traditional Freemasonry
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Even today, over 300 years after its foundation in the modern era, there are three crucial questions about Freemasonry:
What is the historical origin?
What kind of institution is it?
What are its aims?
Fabio Venzi aims to answer these questions with careful and rigorous analysis of historical documents and Masonic evidence. With the author as your guide this comprehensive work will guide you through the various theories put forth by Masonic historians and authorities over the years and examine the strength of the case each makes.
From the point of view of the origins, he examines many documents, particularly those of British origin, and from these it appears that the foundation of modern Speculative Masonry was drawn from multiple sources, the most fundamental of which was Neo-Platonism with all its philosophical currents.
Freemasonry, however, in itself stands as a continuation of the esoteric initiatory Tradition of the West. In this sense, then, the author says that Freemasonry is a Traditional association, whose nature is esoteric initiation. The book contains analysis of the symbols and rituals that follow various esoteric currents, including, in particular, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Alchemy, and the Rosicrucians; symbolic allusions and also refers to the Mysteries of Ancient Greece. The main aims and founding of Freemasonry, then, are those specific to each esoteric initiatory association which aims for the improvement of knowledge, both ethical and metaphysical. This ground breaking work by Fabio Venzi, is invaluable for its wealth of historical and analytical content; it allows the reader to understand what modern Masonry truly is and what its goals are in the current era.
Paperback
224 Printed Pages
Contents
Chapter One
The Origins
Theory of the Origins
The Great Deceit of an Enlightened Freemasonry
The Schaw Statutes and the “Art of Memory” of Ramon Llull
Chapter Two
The Principles and the Inspiring Traditions
Association or Initiatic Society?
Mystery Societies
Hermeticism
Chapter Three
The Neoplatonist Roots
Neoplatonism versus Illuminism
Masonic Symbology and Neoplatonist Allegories
Renaissance Neoplatonism
The Cambridge Platonists
Chapter Four
Transmission Through Use of Symbols
The Task of Symbols
Symbolism in an Initiatic Order and in a Political Context
Chapter Five
For an Initiatic Coalescence
The Integralist Esotericists
Against Esotericism
The Sacred Space in Ancient Societies
Towards Coalescence and Tolerance: Interpretation of the Ritual in an Allegorical-Moralistic or Anagogic Direction
Chapter Six
Freemasonry and Alchemy
Freemasonry and Science: The Illuministic Mystification
Freemasonry and Alchemy
The Modern Science
The New Science
Chapter Seven
A Glance at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Approach: Self
Myth
The Archetype of Self
Genuine Myth and Technicalised Myth
Chapter Eight
The Tradition 207
Freemasonry as a “Form” of Tradition
The Concept of Hierarchy
The Inclusion Theory
Appendix I
Freemasonry and the Catholic Church
Appendix II
The Five Signs of Decay of an Angel
Appendix III
Freemasonry and Mass Media 2
