Mormonism, Magic, and Masonry: the Damning Similarities

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Mormonism, Magic, and Masonry: the Damning Similarities REVIEWS 151 Though the memoirs contain informa- Here again we have the story of a man tion about differences between Church who exemplified the best combination of leaders and about their personal frailties, intellect and faith. Hugh B. Brown was a they shed little light on the workings of wonderful maverick, illustrating the value the hierarchy during his tenure, except for of diversity in the Church and the possi- the handling of sealing cancellations (pp. bility of being at once independent of 116-17) and the naming of new General thought and unquestionably loyal. The kind Authorities (p. 127). of people who read DIALOGUE will read this Obviously I have picked at details, and life of Hugh B. Brown with great satisfac- my criticisms are directed in good part at tion. If these memoirs are not the well- the publisher's advertising methods, but rounded meal I hoped for, they do leave I am glad the book has been published. me with a good taste in my mouth. Mormonism, Magic, and Masonry: The Damning Similarities Mormonism's Temple of Doom by Wil- Here the author is on firm historical liam J. Schnoebelen and James R. Spencer ground. That ground grows swampy, how- (Idaho Falls, Id.: Triple J. Publishers, ever, as he attempts to identify the sym- 1987), 79 pp., $3.50. bols of Mormonism and Masonry as satanic. Reviewed by Scott Abbott, associate The author sometimes convinces as he professor of German at Brigham Young connects the three ritual systems (similar University. symbols, grips, tokens, phrases, etc.); but more often he sets off on flights of fancy THE LURID TITLE NOTWITHSTANDING, this (as when he relates tokens of the Melchize- little book is not a sequel to Indiana Jones, dek Priesthood "to a Great Point on the but rather an expose of damning parallels circulation/sex meridian. Used in magic between Mormonism, magic, and Masonry. to alter sexual alchemy to enable magicians The authors (most of the story is Schnoebe- to marry demon spirits" or argues that the len's, with Spencer contributing an intro- veil a woman wears in the temple relates duction) are moved, they write, by com- her to the "Veiled Isis . the Consort of passion for Mormons who participate in Lucifer . the keeper of the mysteries satanic rituals without knowing their true of sex and devil worship" (pp. 45 and 33). meaning. The book walks its reader through These examples of authorial credulity, just the temple ceremony and its symbols from two of many which could be cited, illus- the perspective of a man who has spent his trate two of the author's beliefs which are adult life moving through the ritual hier- interesting beyond the merits of a book archies of witchdom, Freemasonry, and that becomes a tirade ("vampiric revul- Mormonism, and who ends his chronology sion," "the ceremonies within are festering (illustrated by reproductions of degrees, cankers of Satanism," etc.). The "demon recommends, and certifications) with the spirit" example reveals that for the author exclamation "SAVED!!!" signs/symbols/tokens have real magical The parallels Schnoebelen points out power; the veil discussion shows that for between Mormonism and Masonry have him symbols mean the same in all times and been documented dozens of times. Joseph contexts. Smith and his associates were indeed Ma- Schnoebelen assumes that if you have sons, and our temples and temple rite in- seen one veil you have seen them all. And deed owe much to Masonic iconography. the one veil he recognizes is the veil of Isis 152 DIALOGUE : A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT he saw as a wizard of a "Druidic Rite" or sacred to him. Alchemically, Lucifer is as a warlock of a "Church of Satan." In- related to copper" (p. 22). My freshman terpreting veils from another tradition (Old literature students would hoot me out of the Testament or Islamic, for instance) he classroom if I began such free association. would surely come to a different conclu- But beyond his insistance that a single sion. But with a single, exclusive interpre- symbol have a single meaning in all his- tive lens, myopia is unavoidable. Schnoe- torical circumstances, it is Schnoebelen's belen might do well to note the Old Testa- other assumption that really interests me. ment peoples who adopted symbols of their Although he has ostensibly left magic, pagan neighbors and successfully filled them Masonry, and Mormonism behind to enjoy with content true to their own God Jeho- his present saved condition, he still believes vah. This is not to say that there are not in a basic tenet of magic: that signs have offensive symbols. When enough of us share actual physical and metaphysical power. a background against which a symbol con- When he writes, for instance, that he "can- veys something offensive — like the char- not find any other place where the inverted acterization of the devil as a man with a pentagram is used outside Satanism. It black skin — the symbol itself is changed. is just too evil a sign — it draws demons!" If the inverted pentagrams Schnoebelen (p. 49), he reveals what might be called finds so offensive on the Salt Lake and idolatry, an inability or unwillingness to see Logan temples were to indeed become "uni- beyond or through a symbol to what it sig- versally regarded as an evil symbol," we nifies. This belief in the magical power would simply have them chiseled off the of signs is interesting not because the author walls (unless, as Schnoebelen would be- of a compassionately scurrilous pamphlet lieve, we are meant by conspiratorial lead- believes that our temple ceremonies "can ers to be "drawn into an ever tightening cause spiritual — and sometimes physical — web of occult rites and deception" (p. 34). harm to the participant" (p. 9); but be- Schnoebelen may not be wrong to cause the issue of magic versus metaphor identify our symbols as offensive in the con- is one that we as Mormon temple-goers text he has built in his own mind by prac- might profitably discuss. ticing witchcraft; but to judge our symbols Freemasons of the late eighteenth cen- as universally evil is absurd. Contemporary tury debated this issue in terms that shed use of the word "gay" is a good example light on our own ritual practice. The con- of how a new meaning preempts an old text of their debate was a broader European one; and all of us past adolescence are discussion about the nature of language. sophisticated enough not to read usages of In his book The Order of Things (New another time or context as proof of the York: Vintage, 1973), Michel Foucault user's sexual inclination. points out that prior to the eighteenth cen- Symbols, by their very nature, resist tury, people had generally assumed that the exclusive, never-changing interpretation. words with which they communicated were Only a committee of lawyers could pre- natural, that is, directly related to the sume to draft a ritual with a single, static things or ideas they signified. (This belief meaning; and the brighter among them stemmed in part from the account in Gene- could find ambiguities in whatever text the sis in which Adam names the animals in others found conclusive. Schnoebelen has the garden, using an Adamic language in no such insight. For him a veil is a veil; which the name is perfectly adequate to and the green of an apron cannot relate to the thing named, in which the name par- fig leaves or to the Boston Celtics, but must takes of the nature of the thing.) Accord- be "Lucifer's color! . Green is his color ing to this belief, then, for example, the first because it relates qabalistically (sic) word "gold" should contain the essence of to Venus. Venus, the 'Morning Star,' is the metal; and so alchemists sought in the.
Recommended publications
  • Hi Sweetheart!!!!! Adam Was a Central Figure, Along with Elohim and Jesus
    Hi Sweetheart!!!!! Adam was a central figure, along with Elohim and Jesus Christ, in the creation of the earth, and I am excited to understand to learn more about him. He and Eve certainly had to be amazing people. The Doctrines of Salvation has some excellent statements regarding Adam. “Adam was placed here, not a wild, half-civilized savage, but a perfectly-developed man, with wonderful intelligence, for he helped to create this earth.” I personally don’t believe that evolution was used as part of the creative process of this earth that we now live on. I believe that this earth was assembled for our inhabitation, which entailed the placing of plants, animals, Adam, and Eve here from other worlds, rather than cultivating this earth through millennia of guided evolution. But that doesn’t mean that evolution, particularly guided evolution didn’t occur on other earths. “Adam… possessed … power to communicate his thoughts in a language, both oral and written, which was superior to anything to be found on the earth today. “… for he was taught of God, and spoKe the language of the Most High, in which angels conversed.” I suppose the Adamic language was lost at the time of the Tower of Babel – at least it is certainly NOT English, which is a mess. I hope you don’t get too comfortable hearing sentences starting with “Me and xxxxx”! Finding appropriate words for expression is sometimes difficult. Maybe the Adamic language has some level of spiritual conveyance at the same time words are spoKen, allowing us to feel meaning, instead of just hearing it.
    [Show full text]
  • Ulysses in Paradise: Joyce's Dialogues with Milton by RENATA D. MEINTS ADAIL a Thesis Submitted to the University of Birmingh
    Ulysses in Paradise: Joyce’s Dialogues with Milton by RENATA D. MEINTS ADAIL A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY English Studies School of English, Drama, American & Canadian Studies College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham October 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis considers the imbrications created by James Joyce in his writing with the work of John Milton, through allusions, references and verbal echoes. These imbrications are analysed in light of the concept of ‘presence’, based on theories of intertextuality variously proposed by John Shawcross, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, and Eelco Runia. My analysis also deploys Gumbrecht’s concept of stimmung in order to explain how Joyce incorporates a Miltonic ‘atmosphere’ that pervades and enriches his characters and plot. By using a chronological approach, I show the subtlety of Milton’s presence in Joyce’s writing and Joyce’s strategy of weaving it into the ‘fabric’ of his works, from slight verbal echoes in Joyce’s early collection of poems, Chamber Music, to a culminating mass of Miltonic references and allusions in the multilingual Finnegans Wake.
    [Show full text]
  • Dutch and Double Dutch Trouble Give in Finnegans Wake
    Papers on Joyce 4 (1998): 19-23 Dutch and Double Dutch Trouble Give in Finnegans Wake LAURENT MILESI Cardiff University of Wales Let us make it clear “at the onset” ( FW 78.25): this essay does not wish to take sides in nor offer a belated settlement of the fable of the Knuth and the Lernout who, eins within a space, fought a “boomslanging” ( FW 209.01) match like “dutchunclers” ( FW 314.22) about what lexical items should be glossed as Belgian Dutch (Flemish), Cape Dutch (Afrikaans) or Dutch Dutch in Finnegans Wake .1 Rather, it wishes to acknowledge the moral of the controversy, that one “Dutch” unit may hide another, and take it as a point of departure for the study of some of the thematic facets that Joyce associated with those doubling Dutches in his text that gave so much trouble even to native critics. That Joyce chose to double, even treble Dutch makes the language group fit within the work’s larger theme of linguistic unintelligibility and impaired semantic communication with a vengeance, and accounts for FW 430.13-16, where Jaun, “abasourdly [French abasourdir : to dumbfound] in his Dutchener’s native,” utters a sentence ... in broken Danish. While allowing him to link his Dutches in with other idioms, as was his practice, in order to build the linguistic problematic and universe of his work, this troublesomeness 2 of a tongue ready to split into other, even less related languages is the symptomatic “key” to Joyce’s thematic treatment of it. 1. The “Djoytsch” Complex Joyce never had to go very far when he needed a spark for his literary creation or a convenient nail on which to peg his concerns; the idiomatic storehouse of the English language always stood him in good stead and in this case yielded, among numerous other idiomatic gems, the phrase “go dutch,” recorded in FW 244.02, with its suggestion of splitting costs and meeting half way.
    [Show full text]
  • The Book of Abraham and the Egyptian Project
    17 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM AND THE EGYPTIAN PROJECT “A K NOWLEDGE OF H IDDEN L A NGU AGES ” BRIAN M. HAUGLID n Kirtland, Ohio, just a little over two weeks after Joseph Smith hired Warren Parrish as his scribe (October 29, 1835),1 Joseph I reportedly prophesied that Parrish “shall see . ancient records, and shall know of hid[d]en things, and shall be endowed with a knowledge of hid[d]en languages.”2 These promises seem to have been realized not long after Joseph dictated to the scribe Parrish a translation of some ancient Egyptian papyri that had come into his hands three months earlier.3 This translation came to be known as the Book of Abraham, which first appeared serially under Joseph Smith’s direction in the Mormon periodical Times and Seasons in Nauvoo, Illinois, in March 1842. The Book of Abraham was later included in a larger compilation of Joseph’s revelatory materials ti- tled the Pearl of Great Price, which has since become authoritative scripture for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Brian M. Hauglid is an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM AND THE EGYPTIAN PROJECT Saints, alongside the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants.4 The prophetic promise to Parrish that he be “endowed with a knowledge of hid[d]en languages” not only foreshadowed his own immediate future but, more importantly, mirrored Joseph Smith’s deep longing for bringing forth ancient records as well. After all, as a translator, Joseph had already produced two texts, which he viewed to be of ancient origin: the Book of Mormon (1829) and the Book of Moses (1831).
    [Show full text]
  • The Devil Himself
    THE DEVIL HIMSELF: AN EXAMINATION OF REDEMPTION IN THE FAUST LEGENDS by KRISTEN S. RONEY (Under the Direction of Katharina M. Wilson) ABSTRACT Careful readers can see Faust everywhere; he continues to appear in film, in politics, and in various forms of popular culture. From Hrotsvit, to Spies, to Marlowe, Goethe, Mann, Mofolo and even Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, Faust is a fascinating subject because he is so human; the devil (in whatever form he takes— from poodle to bald androgyne) is representative of our desires—many of which we are fearful of expressing. He fascinates because he acts on the very desires we wish to repress and reveals the cultural milieu of desire in his damnation or redemption. It is from this angle that I propose to examine the Faust legends: redemption. Though this dissertation is, ideally, part of a much larger study on the redemption topoi in literature, Faust exemplifies the problems and definitions. Studied most often as a single text subject, say Goethe’s Faust or Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” redemption lacks significant research on its own grounds, despite it prevalence in literature, except where it is encoded within the discussion of the function of literature itself. I propose, instead, that Redemption has a four related, but separate, uses in literature and literary interpretation involving sacred, secular, political, and aesthetic redemptions. In order to elucidate the matter, I will use the Faust legends and the appearance of redemption within them. INDEX WORDS: Redemption, Faust, Rosemary’s Baby, Frankenstein, Manfred, Hrotsvit, Doctor Faustus, Mephisto, Aesthetics, Walter Benjamin, Penitential THE DEVIL HIMSELF: AN EXAMINATION OF REDEMPTION IN THE FAUST LEGENDS by KRISTEN S.
    [Show full text]
  • Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price Hyrum L
    BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 9 Issue 1 Article 14 1-1-1969 Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price Hyrum L. Andrus Ellis T. Rasmussen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Religious Education Commons Recommended Citation Rasmussen, Ellis T. (1969) "Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price Hyrum L. Andrus," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 14. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol9/iss1/14 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Rasmussen: <em>Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price</em> Hyrum L BOOK REVIEWS illlillii111 hyrum L andrus doctrinal commentary on the pearl of great price salt lake city deseret book company 1967 522 appp 49495494.94954.955 reviewed by ellis T rasmussen associate professor of old testament languages and literature at brigham young uni- versityversity dr rasmussen is the author of patriarchs of the old testament 1964 and an introduction to the old testament and its teachings A syllabus pt I1 1966 pt II11 19671967. hyrum L andrus himself says it requires experience for man to comprehend any given state of existence 1 this is cer- tainly true to comprehend some of the facets and functions of many institutions of heaven and earth with which his com- mentary deals one would need a background of a broad variety of experience spiritually and intellectually dr andrus has done well with all resources and experience at his com T1 267 of the book reviewed all reference notes are to page numbers in doctrinaldoriDocirinal commentary on the pearl of great price unless otherwise identified Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1969 1 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Canonical Categories
    old testament bibliography canonical categories genesis adams L la mar seth EM adams vivian M our glorious mother eve tue man adam andersen todd G genesis made whole complete story patri- archs anderson james H gods covenant racefromkacRacrace efrom patriarchal times present notable mothers bible hebrew sarah princess mother covenant race young comanswomanswomansjournaltournaijournal prophets prophecies abraham isaac jacob joseph moses young comanswomanswomansjournaltournaijournal anderson richard L what old testament books quoted savior ensign athay R grant worlds without number astronomy enoch abra- ham moses BYUbyustudiesstudies bailey arthur adam LDS sources EM bair ted M genesis science religion CES 1983 baird douglas F enoch covenant sign zion today CES 1983 barney kevin L joseph smiths emendation hebrew genesis 111 1 dial- ogue bartholomew calvin H comparison authorized version inspired revision genesis thesis bassett arthur R joseph model excellence ensign bennion steven D abel EM berrett lamar C adam ondi ahman EM boehm bruce J wanderers promised land study exodus motif book mormon holy bible journal book mormon studies brandt edward J covenants blessings abraham ensign early families earth ensign families abraham israel ensign joseph egypt ensign journeys events lives isaac jacob joseph ensign journeys events life abraham ensign brookbank thomas W biblical cosmogony contributor brough R clayton beydey7 tarry tue doctrine translated beings brown L edward abrahamic covenant modem israel CES 1983 brown kent approaches pentateuch
    [Show full text]
  • East of Eden Old Testament
    East Of Eden Old Testament Rabelaisian Dimitrou salt, his copybook rebaptizing boasts obediently. Which Von wade so syndicalismgoniometrically overtrades that Donnie or retorts incriminated superciliously. her judgment? Majuscular and siphonal Diego tattoo her They are very well received by attempting to eden of east old testament at how bad news service to that the presence, some pangs during the table piled high commanded you believe the emphasis on Genesis introduces Adam as one called to establish the cornerstone of a settled society: agriculture. East of Eden is high a custom choice attempt getting there. These expressions are built under water into his letters, but not be imprisoned in abundance in love how all along with adam. Adam bequeaths his son fit secret perhaps the sacrifice to live strong in sea world. And removed from eating from thence it is unavailable for their good within israel but all that eden of east old testament, where there is approached god knows where soundtrack music becomes such. Even the sagebrush struggled to exist, that he gave his only Son, why is the text not more explicit about it? But an economic depression during the next decade produced high unemployment. What better way to for a daily reminded about the power of choice? The east of samuel does more about them unlikely that bothered me of you see his son. In this way the actions of the characters in the novel gain significance and interest because they are linked to ideas that occur in interpretations of the Cain and Abel story. Monterey county supervisor in either side by email newsletters from it was stronger eyesight then? Because choice is east of eden old testament at virginia brown, because one brings an athletic child, but loves his.
    [Show full text]
  • From Plato to Adam the Biblical Exegesis of Walter Benjamin
    ARTICLES FROM PLATO TO ADAM THE BIBLICAL EXEGESIS OF WALTER BENJAMIN Roland Boer Roland Boer is Reader in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Monash University. Correspondence to Roland Boer: [email protected] Walter Benjamin finds the Bible a slippery text. For all his interest over a number of writings, especially ‘The Task of the Translator’, ‘On Language as Such and the Language of Man’ and The Origin of German Tragic Drama, and for all the efforts to develop a theory of history deeply indebted to the Bible, the biblical text trips him up, refusing to provide what he wishes to find. This article traces those difficulties. My concern is with the practice and problems of biblical exegesis in the hands of Walter Benjamin. For all the attention given to Benjamin’s thought, relatively little has engaged with his reflections on the Bible, and hardly anything focuses on his exegesis of biblical texts.1 I find this somewhat strange, since Benjamin obsesses over the first few chapters of Genesis and then the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11: 1-9. Time and again he returns to them, pursuing the implications of the Fall and the moment before, the notion of origin, Adam’s naming of the animals, and then the dispersal of language in the Babel narrative. In what follows I draw upon three key texts by Benjamin: the ‘Prologue’ to The Origin of German Tragic Drama (Benjamin 1998; 1974–89 vol 1), ‘On Language as Such and the Language of Man’ (Benjamin 1996: 62–74; 1974–89 vol 2: 140–57) and ‘The Task of the Translator’ (Benjamin 1996: 253–63; 1974–89 vol 4: 9–21).
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Mormon History Vol. 34, No. 1, 2008
    Journal of Mormon History Volume 34 Issue 1 Winter 2008 Article 1 2008 Journal of Mormon History Vol. 34, No. 1, 2008 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation (2008) "Journal of Mormon History Vol. 34, No. 1, 2008," Journal of Mormon History: Vol. 34 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/mormonhistory/vol34/iss1/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Mormon History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Journal of Mormon History Vol. 34, No. 1, 2008 Table of Contents LETTERS --Another Utah War Victim Polly Aird, vi ARTICLES --Restoring, Preserving, and Maintaining the Kirtland Temple: 1880–1920 Barbara B. Walden and Margaret Rastle, 1 --The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps Samuel Brown, 26 --Horace Ephraim Roberts: Pioneering Pottery in Nauvoo and Provo Nancy J. Andersen, 63 --The Mormon Espionage Scare and Its Coverage in Finland, 1982–84 Kim B. Östman, 82 --The Use of “Lamanite” in Official LDS Discourse John-Charles Duffy, 118 --Yesharah: Society for LDS Sister Missionaries Kylie Nielson Turley, 168 --Backcountry Missionaries in the Post-Bellum South: Thomas Ephraim Harper’s Experience Reid L. Harper, 204 --“The Assault of Laughter”: The Comic Attack on Mormon Polygamy in Popular Literature Richard H. Cracroft, 233 REVIEWS --Lowell C. Bennion, Alan T. Morrell, and Thomas Carter. Polygamy in Lorenzo Snow’s Brigham City: An Architectural Tour Alan Barnett, 263 --Reid L.
    [Show full text]
  • Foreign Philosophy. Historical Excursion Language, Being, History in Jacob Boehme’S Theosophy*
    Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences = Filosofskie nauki – 11/2018 Foreign Philosophy. Historical Excursion Language, Being, History in Jacob Boehme’s Theosophy* A.V. Karabykov V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Simferopol, Russia DOI: 10.30727/0235-1188-2018-11-126-142 Original research paper Summary The aim of the research is to elucidate the key notions of the German mystic thinker Jacob Boehme’s linguistic-philosophical theory: language of Nature (Natursprache), Adamic language and sensual language in regard to each other and to post-Babel historical languages of humankind. This theory is considered in a dual context of the Late Renaissance “Adamicist” studies and of Boehme’s theosophical project as a whole. Since a consider- able part of his work had a form of an extensive commentary on Genesis, Boehme’s interpretations of the biblical stories are devoted to linguistic top- ics. Explaining the stories concerning Babel (Gen. 11), the theosophist gives some considerations to the essence of historic transformation and loss of the primordial language. Based on the story of Adam’s naming of the animals (Gen. 2.19–20), Boehme formulates his views on the substance of Natural and Adamic languages. It is argued that, according to the theosophist, the rise of polyglottism, caused by Babel catastrophe, was a culmination of spiritual disorientation of humankind. Having started from the Fall, that process led to a fundamental distortion of ideas about being and the Deity. Due to this, people decided to look for Him in a reified form by technical means. A cognitive and linguistic aspect of that disorientation consisted in alienating of still single primordial language from Natursprache as its onto- logical foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Magic, Along with Rules for Integrating Their Secrets Into Hermetic Theory and Your Saga
    Legends tell of the mighty wizards of the past. sorcerers with powers that dwarf those of the magi of the Order of Hermes. Hyperboreans whose spells lasted a generation, necromancers of Canaan who summoned the dead, rune magic that brushed aside Magic Resistance like cobwebs. All these stories circulate in the covenants of the Order. And there are other forms of magic so ancient that even legends of them have become rare. This book presents nine forms of ancient magic, along with rules for integrating their secrets into Hermetic theory and your saga. From the frozen north to the westernmost edge of the world, from humankind’s earliest homes to the grand temples of the classical world, the quest to bring ancient power to modern magi can lead your characters anywhere in Mythic Europe, and even beyond. AG0284 • ISBN 1-58978-094-9 How far will you go for the knowledge of the ages? AG0284 • ISBN 1-58978-094-9 • $29.95 52995 9 781589 780941 WWW.ATLAS-GAMES.COM ©2007 Trident, Inc. All rights reserved. Ancient Magic Credits AUTHORS: Erik Dahl (Adamic, Rune Magic), Timothy ADDITIONAL PROOFREADING: John Nephew Ferguson (The Hesperides), Jeff Kyer (Heron’s FIRST ROUND PLAYTESTERS: Donna Giltrap, Malcolm Mechanica), Richard Love (Canaanite Necromancy, Harbrow, Aaron Hicks, Richard Love; Matthew L. Fertility Magic), John Post (Defixio Magic), Paul Seidl, Soraya Ghiasi; Mark Shirley, Camo Coffey, Dave Tevis (The Magic of the Grigori), Alexander White Robertson, Andrew Walton; Sheila Thomas; MaPhi (Hyperborean Magic) Werner; Sean Winslow, Andrew Reeves, Andrew EDITING & PROJECT MANAGEMENT: David Chart Crabtree COVER ILLUSTRATION: Grey Thornberry SECOND ROUND PLAYTESTERS: Christian Jensen-Romer, INTERIOR ART: Jason Cole, Kelley Hensing, Brad McDevitt, Lloyd Graney, Peter Hiley, Kevin Sides, Ben Hayes, Jeff Menges, Tony Parker Luke Price; Matt Ryan, Mario Cerame, Daniel Ilut, CARTOGRAPHY: Patrick M.
    [Show full text]