The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism

Joscelyn Godwin

Weiser Books, Jan 1, 1995 - Religion - 452 pages

The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, active in the last decades of the 19th century, was the only order of its time that taught practical occultism in the Western Mystery Tradition. This is the first complete and undistorted account, tracing the origins, founders, and practices of this very secretive order, which counted among its members many of the well-known figures of late 19th-century occultism, spiritualism, and Theosophy, including Max Theon, Peter Davidson, Thomas Henry Burgoyne and Paschal Beverly Randolph. This scholarly work provides all the materials for revisioning the history, assigning the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor its rightful place as one of the most influential esoteric orders of its time.

Contents

• Theon and the H B of L: 17
• Thomas H Burgoyne: 33
• The Secret Documents: 46
• Influence of the H B of L: 62
• INTRODUCTION: 81
• INSTRUCTIONS IN SYMBOLISM AND COSMOLOGY A 2: 121
• INSTRUCTIONS IN PRACTICAL OCCULTISM A 3: 194
• THE HISTORY OF THE H B OF L IN DOCUMENTS: 279
• MAX THEON B 2: 293
• THE LAUNCHING OF THE H B OF L: 303
• THE COLONY B 4: 314
• THE POLEMIC WITH THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY B 5: 329
• DISCOVERY OF BURGOYNES CONVICTION: 343
• THE H B OF L IN AMERICA AND FRANCE B 7: 375
• REACTIONS TO THE LIGHT OF EGYPT B S: 399
• POSTMORTEM DEBATES B 9: 422
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 443
• INDEX OF NAMES: 449

About the author

Joscelyn Godwin is a composer, musicologist and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism and music in the occult. He is the author of the first complete English language translation (1999) of one of the first illustrated printed texts, the incunabulum Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499). He teaches at Colgate University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism
• Author: Joscelyn Godwin
• Editors: Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, John Patrick Deveney
• Contributors: Christian Chanel, John Patrick Deveney
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Weiser Books, 1995
• ISBN: 0877288380, 9780877288381
• Length: 452 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / Spiritualism; Religion / Biblical Studies / Exegesis & Hermeneutics