Freemasonry
by Giles Morgan
Pocket Essentials, £9.99 (hb), ISBN 13: 978 1 904048 87 9
Freemasonry is often called a “secret society”, but this seems to be an example of a common confusion between a body, membership of which is kept secret, and one which possesses secrets. Freemasons would generally claim the latter status. This book offers a short (160 pp) survey of the subject. Frankly it is rather a poor one. The first two chapters give a reasonable outline of the organization and grades of membership within it. The next fifty pages discuss various supposed origins, which the author does not support or refute, but describes as “speculative”. A cynical reader might prefer the word “rubbish”. The usual suspects are paraded: the Temple of Solomon, Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras, the cult of Dionysus, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Gnostic Gospels, Mithraism, Druids, the Essenes, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and the Priory of Sion (which the author accepts as a complete hoax, dating from 1956).
The next part is more factual on the development of Freemasonry, though we still wander off into the Invisible College, the French Revolution, the Bavarian Illuminati, the Boston Tea-Party, the death of Mozart and the Order of the Golden Dawn. Finally there is a bit about Freemasonry today, but nothing about its size, or the nature of its membership, or its numerous non-ritual activities. The book is carelessly written, with information repeated unnecessarily and some awkward expressions.
A quick trawl of the internet, or the Encylopaedia Britannica, would have yielded a more informative and factual account. One would like to say that it is good in parts. But the original Punch cartoon (Bishop, at breakfast, to young curate: ”I am afraid you have a bad egg, Mr Jones”. Jones: “Oh no, my lord, I assure you! It is very good in parts”) rests on the fact that eggs cannot be partly good. When so much is (avowedly) speculative, can we rely on the remainder? Perhaps, but only by checking with other sources.
John Radford
