My Masonic brother, Leslie, is a kind and generous person, a counsellor, an ex-policeman and a school governor. I was taken aback, therefore, to learn that members of his extended family, learning he was a Freemason, accused him of devil worship. I was also very surprised to be once asked by someone I assumed to be intelligent and well read whether a goat was really involved in Masonic initiation. I set out to write a short lecture for my lodge to explain these daft ideas but the lecture turned into this book.The search for the origin of these and related ideas became a magical mystery tour of such events and people as the occult of 19th century France, the Santa Fe Trail and the mountain men, a Masonic hoax; ancient Egypt and the Book of the Dead; Greek gods and the afterlife; at least two Cleopatras; Cyrus the Great; fauns and satyrs; early Christianity, the gnostics and the gospel of Q; the history of the Bible; polytheism, henotheism and monotheism; the death of Pan; the problem of evil; the Bogomils and the Cathars; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and John Donne; Wittgenstein and language games; reasons for worship; Augustine, Hume and Nietzsche; Kabbalah, the Templars and the Rosicrucians; and, of course, the wonderfully named Hermes Trismegistus - not forgetting Tecumseh, Crazy Horse and the Comanche.

The Goat, the Devil and the Freemason (Masonic)

David J. West

Hamilton House Publishing Ltd.

Things to Do When You Have Nothing to Do ...: Or How to Find Those Candidates Who Have Been Looking for You All This Time (Masonic)

Lewis Masonic

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by David J. West. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by David J. West

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by David J. West. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Goat, the Devil and the Freemason (Masonic)

Things to Do When You Have Nothing to Do ...: Or How to Find Those Candidates Who Have Been Looking for You All This Time (Masonic)