David West (14)

From Grand Lodge of Scotland Review: Strange questions but persistent ones. Such ideas do not spring from the single imagination. The arise, grow and change, time providing at least apparent credibility. This book is a search for the history of the Goat, the Devil and the Freemason; a magical mystery tour of fascinating and often surprising events and people including the occult on the 19th Century France, the Sante Fe Trail and the Mountain men, a masonic hoax ancient Egypt and the book of the dead Greek gods and the after life; at least two Cleopatra Cyrus the great; fauns and satyrs; early Christianity, gonistics and the gospel of Qui the history of the bible; polytheism, henotheism and monotheism; the death of pan the problem of evil; the Bogomils and the Catars; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and John Donne; Wittgenstein and language gains; reasons for worship; Augustine, Hume and Nietzsche; Kabbalah, the Templars and the Rosicrucians; and of course, the wonderfully named Hermes Trismegistus not forgetting Tecumseh, Crazy Horse and the Comanche.… (mais)

The affection the Masonic brethren of the author's lodge feel for each other AND their Masonic home is profoundly evident. If you read this book thinking you'll instantly get everyone in your lodge into the same mindset, I suspect you'll be sadly disappointed but by being selective considering your own situation, you'll find many different things to try to escape the doldrums of 'same ol' - same ol'' that besets many Masonic lodges today. Written as (it clearly seems) a labor of love, there's lots to like here. A big thanks to Brother West for sharing some of the many techniques his lodge has used to prosper. If you're outside England, don't say "We can't do that here." Where there's a will, there's a way - and this book gives you a panoply of ideas for it!… (mais)