Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions) - Hardcover

Bogdan, Henrik

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0791470695 ISBN 13: 9780791470695

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791470695
• ISBN 13: 9780791470695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 235