Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation

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 Freemasonrythe blueprints, as it were, of all later Masonic rituals of initiationBogdan examines the development of the Masonic High Degrees, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawnthe most influential of all nineteenth-century occultist initiatory societiesand Gerald Gardner's Witchcraft movement of the 1950s, one of the first large-scale Western esoteric New Religions Movements.