Freemasonry & Fraternalism
Gems of Song for Eastern Star Chapters
by Lorraine J. Pitkin and Jennie E. Mathews
Although the Order of the Eastern Star was largely invented as a companion secret society to Freemasonry in the nineteenth century, both men who
are Masons and women with a family connection to Masons are members,
and chapters are found as far afield as Scotland and Australia.
History of the Knights of Pythias
by Jos D. Weeks
Largely a secret society, the Pythians sought to aid reconciliation after the
Civil War and gave rise to other movements, including the Dramatic Order
Knights of Khorassan, Princes of Syracuse, Knights of Omar, and Order of
Calanthe. Membership is less than it once was, but lodges exist in more
than twenty states and Canada.
Manual of Knights Templar
by Edward J. Newman
Partly because of novelists and Hollywood, the Masonic Knights Templar
have enjoyed an enormous amount of recent attention, and are the subject
of extravagant claims about their antiquity. They certainly are a highly ritualistic and very curious organization, as this volume of their secrets illustrates.
The Story of the City Companies
by P. H. Ditchfield
As this volume shows, the guilds or livery companies of London started as
medieval associations of tradesmen: haberdashers, skinners, goldsmiths,
and ironmongers. They became charity foundations, trustees of schools
and hospitals, custodians of art treasures and historic buildings, and the
electorate for the leadership of the City of London.
Freemasonry in All Ages
by Rev. M.F. Carey
The tension in Freemasonry over its legendary and real origins and with
its Enlightenment ethos in contrast with Christian views is apparent in this
work by an Irish Episcopalian priest.
Hymns to the Gods & Other Poems
Authored by Gen. Albert Pike
Albert Pike (1809-1891) began writing as a youth, and “Hymns to the
Gods” was his first published poem when he was only 23. He is primarily
remembered as perhaps the leading scholar of Freemasonry in the nineteenth century but quite apart from that his verses display his incredible
linguistic skills and knowledge of mythology.
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