A History of Secret Societies

Arkon Daraul

Citadel Press, 1961 - Humor - 256 pages

"Secret societies have existed throughout history. In many ways they are microcosms of ordinary public society. Nevertheless, an air of menace clings to many famous but shadowy societies. Yet secret societies have often held spiritual goals. Christianity itself was in its earliest days a secret society in Rome, and was considered by the authorities from the start to be a dangerous innovation. The same was true of Islam. Some Arab groups today consider the Jews a dangerous secret society dedicated to the overwhelming of the world. Some Europeans, as well as some Druses and Yezidis in Iraq and Syria, think the same of the Arabs. Some Freemasons and Catholic groups hold identically suspicious views of each other. And many secret societies, dangerous or not, have been persecuted over the ages. Believing that social right and wrong should be the evaluator of secret societies brings us into difficulties. In Borneo, initiates of the hunting societies considered it meritorious to hunt heads. In many parts of the world, initiation into clan life (and consequent status) involves undergoing trials which can result in the death or madness of the candidate. Secret societies can never be totally repressed. The human desire to be one of the elect is something which no power has been able to reduce, let alone overcome. Whether this is a good or a bad thing depends entirely upon one's point of view, and ones commitments at the time of judging the question. This book does not pretend to be an exhaustive account: none such has ever written nor ever will be written. But in these pages will be shown some of the characteristic forms which secret societies and cults have taken--successfully and otherwise. The secret organizations dealt with in this book had been chosen in such a way as to illustrate the widest variety of their forms, rituals and beliefs. Much of the material has been obtained at first hand and is published for the first time."--Dust jacket.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - krisiti - LibraryThing

More a study of religion than societies, I think; most were really more what I would call mystery cults. And not terribly secret, most of them I found the Sufi and the followers of the Peacock Angel ...

Contents

• Foreword: 9
• The Old Man of the Mountains: 13
• The Latter Days of the Assassins: 28
• The Rise of the Knights Templar: 39
• The Fall of the Knights Templar: 50
• The Path of the Sufi: 62
• The Secret Rites of Mithra: 75
• The Gnostics: 81
• The Castrators of Russia: 87
• The CharcoalBurners: 100
• Holy Warriors of Spain III: 111
• The Cults of the Ancient Mysteries: 117
• False Cults and Societies: 124
• The High Priesthood of Thebes: 129
• The Decided Ones of Jupiter the Thunderer: 135
• The Order of the Peacock Angel: 141
• The Masters of the Himalayas: 156
• The Secrets of the Witches: 163
• The Cult of the Black Mother: 179
• The Rosicrucians: 191
• The Holy Vehm: 202
• Devotees of the Guardian Angel: 212
• The Illuminated Ones: 220
• Tongs of Terror: 233
• Primitive Initiation Societies: 246
• Index: 253

Bibliographic information

• Title: A History of Secret Societies; A Citadel Press book
• Author: Arkon Daraul
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Citadel Press, 1961
• ISBN: 0806508574, 9780806508573
• Length: 256 pages
• Subjects: Humor / General