Customer Reviews

A History Of Secret Societies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written under one of Idris Shah's many pen names. This book provides a dated and suspicously incomplete overview of some so-called secret societies. One howler is that he considers the Tibetan Buddhists a secret society! - they never were but until the earlier 1900's certainly inaccessible to most foreigners. I guess Shah thought that his audience was too stupid to figure this one out. Another is the so-called Illuminati he makes a connection with Bayazid Ansari's atheistic cult of libertines and bandits with Adam Weishaupt group. However he provides no references to back up this claim.

Overall this book is a ok place to start with secret societies - but PLEASE take what the author says with a grain of salt. Shah has a history of playing it fast and loose with facts in order to support his many claims like being the Grand Shiekh of all Sufis and which is not recognized by any Sufi orders - Naqshbandi, Mevlevi, etc,

If you're looking for a shallow book on human perversity this isn't it. Daraul's book is a serious investigation into the psychology and cultural characteristics of secret societies through the ages. Well worth the reading!

The source for the ILLUMINATI Triligy Books, Daroul discusses the major secret societies of the last two milleniums. Lacks the most intimate details of each society, due to its modest size, but goes deep enough to interest both the novice and informed reader.

The Templars, the Assassins, the dread Illuminati. All the usual suspects and more besides are here in the book that serves as the primer in History of the Conspiracy 101. Alluding properly to secrets he can't reveal and refusing to give sources for the secrets he does, Daraul's work is still the touchstone for the genre. If your idea of secret history predates 1963, this is a handy sourcebook that's bound to give you a couple of new ideas.

I used this as a source for my own rpg book _Secret Societies: Foes of the Nephilim_, also available right here on Amazon.com

The author seems to be speaking from personal experience and claims that he had personal conduct with his subject. Although I tried, I did not manage to find more information about the author but generally he is not involving any personal opinions or judgments about his references but simply presents the information he collected and leaves the reader to decide; that is why I have to admit that the book is one of the best around in the specific topic. The only thing that the book lacks is bibliography which does not allow the reader for further research on his own. The only reason I gave four stars is because the author does not account the work done by some important orders and specifically does not mention any data about the enochian system of magic.

I'm afraid that these 'historical' reviews seemed a little short on unique information that I haven't seen elsewhere. I was also disappointed in the apparent random placement of diagrams that seemed to have notthing to do with the text. For example, within the first 7 chapters, there were numerous diagrams of encryption codes used by secret societies, but yet there was absolutely no discussion about secret codes anywhere in the text. Perhaps I'm missing the real 'code' hidden somewhere between the typeface of the printed page, but as a useful historical perspective on what 'secret societies' are all about, how they differ, how they perhaps associalte or embattle each other, or most importantly, how they might impact (positively or negatively) our lives today, I feel the value of this book was lost on me; or perhaps it's just a 'secret'.

The book's title claims this is to be a history of secret societies, but it fails to be anything close to that. Rather, it is a short book comprised of something of a roundup of basically unconnected chapters, each covering to some extent a different group that the author apparently considers a 'secret society.'

Some of these groups - the Chinese Tongs, the Castrators, the Rosicrucians, the Holy Vehm, various groups calling themselves Illuminati - would be considered secret societies, but numerous other groups given brief biographies are really more like sects or religions, including that of Mithra, Kali, the Peacock Angel, and the Assassins. As such, they are more a number of groups into which the would-be member is initiated through a variety of tests, trials and techniques, where the content of the group's meetings or activities may be private but is not always nefarious or illegal.

Beyond that, the chapters themselves are of limited merit. Some ritual activity is often described, which is interesting; but dates, names, important biographical information is omitted or glossed over (or not known). The value of this book may simply be in bringing the reader's attention to a given obscure group, about which the reader can then learn more (online or from other books).

Given these limitations, the book is not of more utility than as the most basic introduction to certain often little-known religions or groups.

It should be kept in mind by the reader of this book that the writer's real name is Idries Shah, who is rather better known for his Sufi books. His scholarship here is about as thorough as it is in his other works. His writings on the Isma'ilis are almost totally based on the accounts of Marco Polo and are otherwise devoid of historical accuracy.

Secret Societies, throughout the ages, have existed wherever civilizations and people have existed. Living behind veils of shrouded secrecy, and remaining uknown to the very populaces which have furnished their existance, Arkon Daraul provides the reader with research, as well as travels throughout Europe and the Middle East, from suburbia to the Himalayas, in search of answers. "A History of Secret Societies" furnishes a worthy glance into a few rituals and beliefs of numerous societies. A correct reading of the entire book allows the individual to make connections throughout, whether it be a correlation between one ritual or another or one society or the other. Because the book seems to angle toward examining rituals and beliefs, as opposed to lenghty research capable of manifesting a new outlook, one gets the impression that the true objective of these societies remains untold. A good `spark-igniter' for this subject area.

This is a must read book if someone is interested in or are studying Sociology. You can not study Sociology without knowing about Secret Society. As if you do, then you are just a pretender or a wannabe expert about societies.

This book cover histories of a few of the secret societies out there. It is not all encompassing but it will get you started.

Of course it does not cover governmental secret societies such as the CIA-Central Intelligent Agency, FBI-Federal Bureau of Investigation, NSA-National Security Agency, Pakistan ISI-Inter-Service Intelligent, Russian FSB-Federal Security Bureau, Russian GRU-Military Intelligents and other foreign intelligent agencies. In the USA alone there are 15 clandestine intelligent agencies, not including local law enforcements with their L.A. Secret Police: Inside the LAPD Elite Spy Network, undercover operatives, confidential paid informants(CPI), etc.

And of course it does not mentioned industrial secret societies for the Automotive Industry, Insurance Industry, Financial Industry, Military Industry, Contracting Industry, Etc. The book CIA, INC.: Espionage and the Craft of Business Intelligence & Defeating Industrial Spies will cover industrial secret societies/clan in more detail if you are interest in it.

And of course you have a Secret Society that is older than Christianity that not even this book is aware of that I mentioned about on my review of Skid Row (Full Screen) .

However all of these Secret Societies have something in common, a clandestine method of communication. If you are interested in Secret Society, then you must learn more about clandestine method of communication. I would recommend you read the book Secret Messages: Concealment, Codes, and Other Types of Ingenious Communication .

I read this book 15 years ago and it did not really impress upon me much at the time. But over the years I start to notice things from this book that I was not aware of before. Read my review on Secret Messages: Concealment, Codes, and Other Types of Ingenious Communication to see what I mean.

So I would recommend that if you planning on reading this book, don't expect too much at first. The informations in this book will implant itself in your mind and over the years, your own mind will reveal things to you that you were not aware of before.

I highly recommend this book for reading if you want to learn more about Societies.

Note: This book is old and are out of print so it would be hard to get a new copy.

1. However Arkon Daraul has a new book on Secret Society called Secret Societies . It seems to be simlar to this book and you would want to look into it if you are interested in this subject and can't get a new copy of this book.

2. Arkon Daraul also has newer book on the same subject called A History Of Secret Societies