Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects (Mysteries of the Unknown)

Rating:
Summary: Exoteric history of the leading mystery schools and members
Review: The reason I own a copy of this book is despite the fact it was not written by someone within the tradition, any person could follow the story line (with the aid of the pictures and reproduced plates) well enough to obtain a working knowledge of the history of the events leading and influencing the Western Tradition making it what is today. Thus gaining an understanding of what it is to be a part of this fabulous tradition.
This book will be of interest especially to students and initiates of the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucians (from any of the various schools) and Freemasons. This book is almost a primer, giving a good and fairly comprehensive overview and alot of places where the reader could research further much more easily with the knowledge obtained of the different authors.
What really sets this book apart is the use of pictures. These make the story much easier to follow and much much more interesting. This takes the feeling of a history lesson right out of it! This is replaced by paintings, photographs, reproduced plates from alchemical texts and things like that. One thing that should be noted is that for every increment of fun, an equal amount of sholarly feel is removed. Then one should say this book is alot of fun.
I would own this book just to have a picture of Westcott in full G.D. regalia, fire wand and all. There are numerous things like this through out the book with an average of two or three of these pictures per page.
The material in this book starts of with initiation, and moves through Mithras, Isis and cults of old. Then Masonry covering prominent figures (George Washington, Sir Christopher Wren, Pike) and is very nicely done. The Templars and Shriners are in there, but for me the book really gets interesting examining the "Fama" and the various alchemists (Boehme, Maier) and Rosicrucians. H. Spencer Lewis and the AMORC is pictured but Max Heindel is only mentioned unfortunatly. As I said before there are pictures of all the founding fathers of the Golden Dawn, and I am now able to put names on the faces of the pictures on the website. The theosophical society is covered once again with pictures and reproduced plates. Next is the chapter on the beast himself. Aleister Crowley has an entire chapter devoted to a very one sided veiw of his career. The dates are correct and the pictures are outstanding but his masonic and buhddist history is downplayed if mentioned at all, painting an eccentric picture of the man in a somewhat unkind light. To be taken with a grain of salt.
The one thing that could have been added to this book is a little more on doctrine. This is why i recomend it as use in the way of a starter or primer. The knowledge here is based mainly historically, in other words the tree of life, the middle pillar, and the columns are not to be found in this book. It will be usefull to anyone trying to simplify and explain the history and what it means to be a member. Scholar wise, despite the obviously well done research, it is highschool book report material at best.
Plus if your just into learning about nifty secret societies that everyday people, senators, and even modern day presidents belong to, this book can show you with pictures to boot. That might take some of the mystery out of it, but its still really cool don't you think?