Customer Reviews

The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism

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The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor has become "en vogue" lately among certain circles of occultists and occult historians. This book, unlike others written by persons of questionable academic reputation, gives a complete and unbiased account of the HBL, its structure, system, and personalities.

Complete and concise, contains several useful documents including sources for high degree OTO materials, this book is a must-have in the library of any serious occultist.

The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor was a fraternal order founded in the 19th century by the enigmatic Max Theon. People like Max Theon are usually described as 'enigmatic' or 'shadowy' and with good reason. But this book goes a long way toward shedding some light on Theon, Peter Davidson, Paschal Beverly Randolph, Emma Hardinge Britten, and others, all of whom had a great deal to do with the channeling of the American current of Magick. The research conducted by the authors' is truly impressive, although it simply left me hungry for more information. (Mr. Deveney has also written a marvelous biography of the mystic and seer, P.B. Randolph.) Read carefully, however, this book provides the background to the secret history of our times.

This book really goes back to the beginnings of occultism. I would suggest reading
Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)
first, however; as you will get more out of it if you have a context to put it in.
Enjoy!

This book really goes back to the beginnings of occultism. I would suggest reading
Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)
first, however; as you will get more out of it if you have a context to put it in.
Enjoy!

I was surprised by the rigor of this study, it's a valuable source book providing interested students of history with a background to the HBoL, it's movers and shakers, and the general occult demimonde milieu they occupied.

Students of 19th century esoteric history will find it valuable. I recommend Rene Guenon's history of Theosophy along with it. While Guenon's intent was polemical, he assembled a good body of facts and observations that overlap heavily with the materials Godwin assembled here.

This book is well recommended.