I propose that this thread be used to list
legitimate, scholarly, and serious resources, both online and offline, for the further
investigation of Western esoterica, occult philosophy, and those groups that are so often intimately connected to these topics, societies with secrets
and clandestine organizations.
So much completely false and shakily grounded information gets put forward on ATS, but then this is the nature of the board, conspiracy theory as
post-modern mythology. All this is enjoyable as a genre but I wanted to see if I could inject material and resources that are more soundly and
thoroughly researched for any interested parties to look into further.
If you post information and links in this thread please stop and think before posting. Ask yourself what possible bias may the owner of the website
have, what axes may they have to grind? How well referenced and footnoted is the information presented there? Is there an undercurrent of bigotry
against particular groups, ideological, religious, racial, sexual, or otherwise?
I would be far more open to consider a sometimes flaky, New Age orientated site like
Crystalinks.com, than say,
David Duke's website or that of Michael A. Hoffman II (no matter how much I enjoyed the latter's "Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare" as a
pure conspiracana genre piece of the highest order). If a single piece is of merit, well researched, and balanced in its approach, then it should be
considered, no matter what its source. This list is merely preliminary and is indicative of my own focus. Lots of other esoteric topics and secret
societies are missing. Please include further links.
Societies with secrets and clandestine organizations:
Online
Pietre-Stones Review of Freemasonry
Freemason Information
Canonbury Masonic Research Centre
Freemasonry Today
The Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism - University of Sheffield
Masonic Info
Masonic Dictionary
Phoenixmasonry, Inc.
Phoenixmasonry, Inc. - Extensive list of ebooks on
Masonry
Bavarian Illuminati - Home of the Original Writings of the Bavarian Illuminati
Illuminati Conspiracy Part One: A Precise Exegesis on the Available Evidence
(Bavarian Illuminati)
Illuminati Conspiracy Part Two: Sniffing out Jesuits
(Bavarian Illuminati)
Illuminati of Bavaria
Timeline of the Authentic Tradition
Antiquities of the Illuminati
US Grand Lodge - Ordo Templi Orientis
Thelemapedia
The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis
International Institute of Social History - Secret societies: A very short
history
Wikipedia list of secret societies, attendant material and mythologies
The Rosicrucian Enlightement - Frances A. Yates (PDF
book)
The Secret History of
Freemasonry: Its Origins and Connection to the Knights Templar by Paul Naudon PDF book (Deceptively titled. The "connection" is not quite what
you may think)
Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley. PDF
book. (A bloody long book, but with some solid information on one of the most important secret societies in modern history, lost in amongst the
voluminous text, that needs to be addressed and compared with the following Quigley volume):
The Anglo-American Establishment - by Carroll Quigley PDF
book.
(
Very important work.)
Offline resources:
The Origins of
Freemasonry - Scotland's Century 1590 to 1710 - by David Stevenson
Living the Enlightenment:
Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe by Margaret C. Jacob
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry by John J.
Robinson (Whilst the link between the Templars and the Freemasons is almost certainly spurious, Robinson's book is one of those that needs to
be read, if only for the romantic, mythological notion)
Fire in the Minds of Men:
Origins of the Revolutionary Faith by James H. Billington
Perfectibilists: The 18th Century Bavarian
Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson
America's Secret Establishment: An
Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones by Antony C. Sutton
Qadosh: The Johannite Tradition by Jonathan Sellers
[edit on 2/3/10 by Extant Taxon]
