The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism

by Joscelyn Godwin

Hardcover, 1995

Status

Available

Call number

135.4

Collection

Publication

Red Wheel Weiser (1995), Hardcover, 464 pages

Description

The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, active in the last decades of the 19th century, was the only order of its time that taught practical occultism in the Western Mystery Tradition. This is the first complete and undistorted account, tracing the origins, founders, and practices of this very secretive order, which counted among its members many of the well-known figures of late 19th-century occultism, spiritualism, and Theosophy, including Max Theon, Peter Davidson, Thomas Henry Burgoyne and Paschal Beverly Randolph. This scholarly work provides all the materials for revisioning the history, assigning the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor its rightful place as one of the most influential esoteric orders of its time.

User reviews

LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
This volume-length study of a 19th Century international magical order shows a level of scholarship that deserves to set a standard in the treatment of such topics. Virtually all of the available primary texts have been reproduced, with analysis that sets them in context. Biographies of the
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principal figures of the organization are set forth, and its relationship to other groups is examined.

Though not presented as such, The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor as now published could provide the basis for a grass-roots H.B. of L. revival such as that enjoyed by the Golden Dawn as a consequence of Regardie's exposures. In many ways, the H.B. of L. technology is more appropriate for the task. While the H.B. of L. aspired to the formation of a Lodge system and group initiations, it appears that their modes of recruitment did not make such activity possible for the majority of members. So the emphasis is on individual study and self-initiation within a larger fraternity and symbolic system.
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Language

Original publication date

1995

Physical description

464 p.; 9.1 inches

ISBN

0877288259 / 9780877288251

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