First published in 1936 as My Rosicrucian Adventure, this revised (sixth) edition has added manifestoes by Mathers and W.B. Yeats, the author’s answer to several books critical of the Order, and other interesting essays and documents. This book is not a guide to Golden Dawn magic or rituals, but the author’s personal reflections on just about everything else surrounding the Order: its ideology and historical foundations, its literary interests and pursuits, its inner turmoil, its public scandals, plus the activities and writings of other influential members like Crowley, Mathers, Wescott, Dion Fortune and Yeats. Analysis of rituals and ceremonies, and just how they operate on the imagination, are especially good. Discussion of how the Golden Dawn put together its system of magic from such sources as the Kabbalah, Greek and Egyptian texts and lore is also revealing. “They have synthesized into a coherent whole this vast body of disconnected and widely scattered material, and have given it form and meaning,” notes Regardie. The author’s thoughts on why the makeup of the Order demanded secrecy are also significant. The book is filled with insightful thoughts on various problems surrounding the use of talismans, divination, angelical keys and/or calls, Enochian tablets, evocation and much more. BS

Publisher: New Falcon
Paperback: 234 pages

A comprehensive inquiry into the origins and meanings of the graphic/pictorial symbols which we see most often as artistic embellishments in visual art; stars, crosses, sunwheels, bells, candles, pillars, shields, swords, swastikas, fleur-de-lîs and many others, as well as the non-graphic symbols which we find throughout folklore, fairy tales and mythology, such as the shoes and mice in the Cinderella story. The author's investigation delves into the historical foundations of symbolism in secretive mystical traditions like Mythraism, the Knights Templar and Rosicrucianism, as well as in the widely known religious/spiritual traditions of numerous cultures. Symbols are usually much more ancient in origin than we imagine, says the author, most of them existing literally as far back as civilization has existed; they are handed down not merely from one generation to another, but from one culture to another, which suggests that they are, in some way, the premises upon which written and oral communication are founded. The two-volume set makes up what may be the most detailed and complete catalog of symbolism. BS

Publisher: Citadel
Paperback: 375 pages

A comprehensive inquiry into the origins and meanings of the graphic/pictorial symbols which we see most often as artistic embellishments in visual art; stars, crosses, sunwheels, bells, candles, pillars, shields, swords, swastikas, fleur-de-lîs and many others, as well as the non-graphic symbols which we find throughout folklore, fairy tales and mythology, such as the shoes and mice in the Cinderella story. The author's investigation delves into the historical foundations of symbolism in secretive mystical traditions like Mythraism, the Knights Templar and Rosicrucianism, as well as in the widely known religious/spiritual traditions of numerous cultures. Symbols are usually much more ancient in origin than we imagine, says the author, most of them existing literally as far back as civilization has existed; they are handed down not merely from one generation to another, but from one culture to another, which suggests that they are, in some way, the premises upon which written and oral communication are founded. The two-volume set makes up what may be the most detailed and complete catalog of symbolism. BS

Publisher: Citadel
Paperback: 388 pages

A psychoanalytical study focusing on the Fuehrer as personality: his transformation from disillusioned artist to semi-divinity; his childlike traits; his Oedipal conflicts; his obsessions with time, cleanliness and wolves; his tastes in visual art and literature; his fears of women and sexual interests; his love affairs and much more, with a very good analysis of how his private neuroses translated into public policy. Especially interesting is the author’s exposition on Hitler’s personality as the literal foundation of National Socialism: “He was not the interpreter of an ideology; he was the idea made incarnate. He was Nazism.” BS

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 482 pages
Illustrated

Gives exact, word-for-word descriptions of the actual ceremonies and rites of passage that members of Freemasonry experience as they pass from initiation into the higher echelons of the temple, and goes into some detail describing the symbolic meaning of instruments like gages and gavels, jewelry and clothing, handshakes, prayers, and the construction of the temple as a building. From a ceremony of initiation: “The candidate then enters, the Senior Deacon at the same time pressing his naked left breast with the point of a compass, and asks the candidate, ‘Did you feel anything?’ Answer: ‘I did… a torture’ The Senior Deacon then says ‘As this is a torture to your flesh, so may it ever be to your mind… if ever you should attempt to reveal the secrets of Masonry.” BS

Publisher: A&B
Paperback: 110 pages
Illustrated

Pursues the issue of ideological appropriation of Nietzsche by the Nazis, the avant-garde, socialists of the Right and Left, and thinkers like Heidegger, Jung, Mann, Rosenberg, Derrida, and others. A good introduction to, and analysis of, some of Nietzsche’s most meaningful thoughts: his critique of enlightenment, rationality, philosophical humanism, middle-class values, Christianity and its slave morality, and academia; and his emphasis on life, will to power, and cultural totality. Provides valuable insights into how these thoughts became national policy in the Third Reich, and the ideological foundation for some of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers: “Man is Beast and Overbeast: the higher man is Nonman and Overman: these belong together. With every growth of man in greatness and height, there is also a growth in depth and terribleness: one should not will the one without the other—or rather: the more radically we will the one, the more radically we achieve precisely the other.”—Heidegger. BS

Publisher: University of California
Hardback: 368 pages
Illustrated