The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries, and the Founding of America [Paperback]

Peter Levenda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2009

What are the roots of American Freemasonry?

What do Freemasons know and acknowledge about the history of their society?

What truth is there in the legends of Masonic origins in the fabled Knights Templar ... or the ancient Egyptian mysteries?

What is the Mason-Mormon connection?

Were Masons involved in the American Revolution and, if so, in what way?

Is it possible to unlock the secrets of the Masonic code?

Does America have a secret history?

Readers will come away from Peter Levenda's thorough and engagingly written book with many of the answers to these questions about Freemasonry, the fraternal organization that has risen from obscure roots to boasting a worldwide membership of more than 5 million people. Freemasonry is thus a large subject, and Levenda's study provides a history of the Society, highlighting important events, and including some of the more controversial and newsworthy aspects (rumors of satanic rites and nefarious plots) of an organization that boasted George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and so many other Founding Fathers as members Masonic elements to be found in Washington. This is the perfect guide for anyone who wants to delve a little deeper into the mysteries of, and answers behind, Freemasonry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With all the mystery surrounding the Freemasons, along with the recent vogue in secret societies (see The Da Vinci Code and its many followers), it's hard to see how historian Levenda (Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult) managed such a dry treatment. Though it's perfectly acceptable, even laudable, that Levenda seeks to dispel the mythic, romanticized construct of the Freemasons in favor of provable facts, he drains the magic from their history without answering any of his questions-most notably, "Is it possible to understand Masonry without being a Mason?"-in a meaningful way. Without a narrative line, Levenda skips from tangent to tangent, producing what is more or less a catalogue of his unsynthesized research. Whole sections pass without any conclusions being reached, and while Levenda certainly isn't responsible for all the answers, readers will expect more than a complex set of historical data jazzed with occasional factoids and appearances from other secret societies like the Illuminati and Yale's Skull and Bones. Readers interested in the secrets of Freemasonry will be surely disappointed, and history buffs will grow quickly frustrated with Levenda's poor organization and sleepy prose.
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Review

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"Levenda seeks to dispel the mythic, romanticized construct of the Freemasons in favor of provable facts." -Publishers Weekly

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

"Levenda seeks to dispel the mythic, romanticized construct of the Freemasons in favor of provable facts." -Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (April 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826430007
• ISBN-13: 978-0826430007
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Freemasonry

More About the Author

Peter Levenda was born in the Bronx and lived in New York, Indiana, Chicago, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island before going to Malaysia where he lived for seven years. He has an MA in Religious Studies and Asian Studies, and has worked as an IT executive in China, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Europe (he became involved in China trade in 1984). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the T.E. Lawrence Society, and is a charter member of the Norman Mailer Society.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Inner America, April 16, 2009

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The Dilettante "Dilly!" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries, and the Founding of America (Paperback)

Peter Levenda's books just keep getting better and better. In this beautiful edition (featuring cover design by the buzzworthy Sarah Rainwater), Levenda attempts to answer a question he posed in Sinister Forces-The Manson Secret: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft (Bk. 3): "Who are we as Americans?" If this question seems intractably vague, Levenda suggests, it may be because our post-Enlightenment rationalism has willfully blinded us to the nature of national identity, which exists in the "hidden side of things" - the magic, mythic consciousness of pre-modern (pre-Modernist?) societies. We don't have to take voodoo seriously to appreciate that others do, and that it is a powerful explantory and interpretive principle in their lives. And when we ignore the power of magic and ritual, we discount the dominant psychology and causal understanding of most of humanity, for most of human history. As Levenda explains here, this included the Founders. And, whether we know it or not, it includes us as well.

The Secret Temple is an attempt to dig into the forgotten mystical soil that nurtured the roots of Enlightenment rationalism. And it's a weird trip, leading all the way from Hiram of Tyre to Salt Lake City. The broad strokes of Levenda's story will be familiar to anyone who's ever taken a look at Masonic history, but his approach is refreshingly new. He's not a Mason or initiate in any rival order. He's not an anti-Semite, a gun nut or a compulsive hand-washer, and he doesn't seem like an agent provocateur. He has a strong taste for the weird but he cares about historical detail and accuracy. He doesn't shy away from discussing conspiracy theories, but he's not emotionally invested in them, either. He is bold, argumentative, prone to draw exquisitely fine distinctions, and attracted to subtleties and nuance.

As such, this book can be a bit dry at times, but if you want a sincere and trustworthy guide to the Inner America, Levenda's your guy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fine survey, January 31, 2010

By 

Joseph Valentine Dworak (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries, and the Founding of America (Paperback)

This book is a fine survey looking at some of the historical origins of the various templar and mason movements over time. At times there are centuries that go by where the author has to make some leaps in order to connect the dots.

This did help tie a number of things together for me, how masonic orders relate to some modern day religious movements, and more about how the masons may, or may not have influenced the creation of the United States.

The author does a good job of staying in the middle, and not taking one side over another. He does give great attention to detail, where there is detail to be had. I enjoyed this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A survey of historical controveries, April 13, 2010

By 

Jerry Richardson (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries, and the Founding of America (Paperback)

This book is not for people who are new to the History of Freemasonry or the Occult. Most of this book is a treatment of historiographical controversies centered on Freemasonry. Peter Levenda offers a broader(revisionist?) view of US and European History in light of his research in this book. Levenda points out the potential existential threat groups like the Freemasons represent to an open society, however, he also shows that in practice they rarely are a threat. Most conspiracy theorists won't like this book. The reviewer is not a Freemason or Occultist.