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De Goeroe en de Baron – Rick Nieman (2026)

The book ‘the guru and the baron’ was recently published and gets quite some attention. It was written by former news reader Rick Nieman (1965-) and his wife, also a former news reader, Sacha de Boer (1967-). Both journalists, were put on a trail when they bought a summer house in an area with an interesting history. It was the area where the (in)famous “Star camps” used to be held, camps to promote the new world leader Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986).

The baron from the title is Philip van Pallandt (1889-1979) a fortunate and wealthy man who inherited a massive estate that he would gift to the Order of the Star of the East.

Nieman and De Boer made contact with the grandchildren of the baron, got access to what is left of the family archives, which includes letters, photos, documents and what not. I was curious if any new information would have surfaced.

Krishnamurti was discovered and promoted by the Theosophists Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Charles Leadbeater (1854-1934). He was sent to England for eduction and from then on Krishnamurti led a life of luxury.

The book presents a double biography, entwined biographies. The young and idealistic baron was caught by the ideas of the young Theosophical Society and its ideas of the comming Messiah, but even more so, he was caught by the personality of the young Indian man was expected to be the carrier of the world leader. The two became close friends for life.

Van Pallandt is pictured as idealistic. He put his heart and money into several causes and it was on his former estate that the “star camps” have been held from 1924 to 1938, drawing thousands of people from all over the world. Van Pallandt himself had a very intimate friendships, wide interests and he travelled all over the world.

The life of Krishnamurti was already better known, but I suppose Nieman was able to add some new information from the new sources that became available to him. The red thread is here that Krishnamurti both doubted and embraced the role that he was pushed into; until he did no longer.

I find Nieman’s writing style a bit ‘wooly’, but the book presents a well researched and very readable story of two men, the highs and lows in their lives, things that happened around them and all that covering a large period of time that includes both World Wars.

I had some hope that Farwerck would appear in the book, but he does not. I can hardly imagine that he never showed up on the star camps and Van Pallandt was a ‘natural contact’ for him. Moreover, he was a member of the Order.

What we do learn from the book is that Besant and Leadbeater visited Ommen quite a few times. I wonder if they used these occasions to visit co-Masonic or Theosophical lodges during these visits. This -of course- was not Nieman’s point of interest, so not a word about such things. The book may help to spark some investigations in such details though.

The book is a good read. I do not know if there are plans for an English translation.

2026 De Bezig Bij, isbn 9789403135083

On Occult Masonry and Hermetic Initiation – Jean-Marie Ragon (1853/2024)

For many years I have had the 1931 Dutch translation of this (in)famous book. I did not remember much of it, so I decided to get the Kindle version the VBros / Laura Gaie English translation.

It is a bit odd that the book is mostly known by its subtitle, as the actual title is: “Orthodoxie maçonnique”, ‘Masonic orthodoxy’. Or perhaps only a part of the book has become known as the rest of the original title is: “suivie de la Maçonnerie occulte et de l’initiation hermétique”, ‘followed by occult Freemasonry and Hermetic initiation’.

I remember why I did not remember much of the book. It is not all that interesting. There is even not very much about Freemasonry here. Ragon (1781-1862) presents more of a history of esotericism with extra stress on what was hip in his own days. What is quite annoying, is that he uses the term “Masonry” all the time “Iatric Masonry”, “Mesmerian Masonry”, as if anything esoteric is (Free)masonry.

Magic, Alchemy, Theosophy, the esotericism of his age, plants, animals, all good and well, but where is the Freemasonry? The book is not very ‘novel’ or particularly insightful. Just a compilation of descriptions of things esoteric like more were published in these days.

1853 / VBros, isbn 978-2487364141.

Elementary Treatise On Occult Science – Papus (1888/2024)

Another V Bros / Laura Gaie translation of an esoteric classic. This time the famous Traité Élémentaire de Science Occult of Gérard Encause (1865-1916), better known under the name “Papus”.

The Elementary Treatise is a mildly interesting book. In some parts Papus actually does explain “occult science”, but there are also parts in which he apparently only wants to display his knowledge (see how many esoteric authors I can name).

Papus writes about esotericism in the past, treats subjects such as Alchemy, Hermetism and Kabbalah. This is quite interesting, but halfway the book becomes more of a history of which there have been so many. The weirdest theories are presented and Papus keeps hammering on the fact that his thinking holds the middle between science and esotericism. He was obviously impressed by the new Theosophical movement that arose in his day.

The book is partly surprisingly interesting and partly surprisingly dull.

Again the book appears to have been translated automatically. There is a “glossary” at the end of Sédir and the author and some words are much different in English than they are in French, but this piece of text has just been translated, so you find English words under the wrong letter-lemet.

Anyway, thank you Laura Gaie for finally making such classic French texts available to a wider audience.

2024 V Bros, isbn 2487364564

The Origins of Freemasonry – Margaret Jacob (2006)

For some reason I never got to read a book of Jacobs (1943-). She writes about the Enlightenment and within that subject also about Freemasonry. I picked one of her books about the latter subject.

Jacobs does not present a very common history of Freemasonry. She has more of a social interest it seems. The biggest merrit of this book, is that decades ago Jacobs sought access to archives that at the time were not available to the general public. Many not even to scholars that were not Freemasons themselves. Jacobs travelled all over Europe to see what these different archives contained and took a few subjects that she turned into histories.

Still a novel approach is that Jacobs investigated Masonic almanacs. What were they for? How did they differ from the popular ‘general’ almanacs that were popular in the early 18th century? How they they help forge ‘the world of Freemasonry’?

Jacobs presents Freemasonry as a ‘social reform movement’ in which people met who would otherwise would not have met, where different religions cooperated, where the first experiences with democracy took place.
Another such reform was the involvement of women, perhaps still a controversial subject. Jacobs has gathered a lot of information about Freemasonry of “adoption”, so Freemasonry that included women (a precursor of co-Masonry), which in some ways had much different developements than Freemasonry proper. Jacobs looks at the organisation, how roles are divided, ritual development, differences between areas, etc.

2006 University of Pennsylvania Press, isbn 0812219880

The Magic of Giuliano Kremmerz – David Pantano (2026)

Pantano keeps publishing about the Italian esoteric underground of a century ago. After having focussed on Marco Daffi for a while, this time we get a wealth of information about Daffi’s ‘master’: Giuliano Kremmerz (1861–1930), born Ciro Formisano. Together with The Hermetic Science of Transformation, English speakers now have an wealth of texts of the Italian master.

Pantano’s book contains mostly texts of the Confraternita Terapeutica e Magica di Myriam (Therapeutic and Magic Brotherhood of Myriam). This concerns both organisational information, instructions and rituals.

The 330+ pages also contain texts of Pantano (summeries, memories, etc.) and some ‘related’ texts of followers of Kremmerz.

It is largely not really my cup of tea, but the book makes an interesting compendium of an interesting current. Also interestingly, one of Pantano’s own texts is very critical about Kremmerz, his system and most of his followers.

2026 Manticore Press, isbn 1763861376

The Primordial Tradition Of Ancient China – Matgioi (1905-2026)

Eugène Albert Puyou de Pouvourville (1861-1939) spent much of his life in the far East. There he studied old texts and was one of the first Westerners to write about it. La Voie Métaphysique (‘The Metaphysical Path’) was translated and introduced by Joscelyn Godwin.

The introduction is lengthy. Godwin used 55 pages to introduce Matgioi, his life, his writings and the social context in which his works appeared. Matgioi knew the work of René Guénon and Godwin put extra stress on this link by changing the title of the book.

Matgioi works thematically through works such as the I Ching (“Yijing”) and those of Lao Tze and Kongzi (Confucius). The first part is the most interesting as he explains the hexagrams of the Tao Te King, concepts of mostly Chinese thinking, etc. Later on the chapters appear to be more general.

I actually found this book through a Facebook ad. It certainly was not a bad call. The book is not ‘Traditionalistic’ like those of Guénon, but it is interesting to see an early view on far Eastern thinking and an attempt to explain it to Westerners through the lens of Traditionalism.

2026 Inner Traditions, isbn 979-8888501467

The Life And Death Of John Yarker – David Harrison (2024)

As the author says, a biography of John Yarker (1833-1913) was long overdue. In 2024 finally the book that Yarker deserved came out through the British Masonic publisher Lewis Masonic.

Here I immediately saw a problem. Since Brexit, getting books from the UK is not only expensive, but also a pain. It will get stuck at customs, I have to pay extra, etc. I waited out the second edition (there was a luxury edition first) in the hope that it would appear in the catalogues of continental booksellers, but still no luck. I got the second (paperback) edition and had the problems that I expected…

Harrison wrote a 350+ book about one of the most interesting Masonic authors or the last century. Joining “regular” Freemasonry at a young age, Yarker got a liking for the esoteric, but soon realised that “regular” Freemasonry was not going to fulfil his needs. He slowly but surely started to move towards the “fringes” of the world of Freemasonry. Exotic rites, exotic organisations, some linked to Freemasonry, some not. Yarker performed historical investigations, transcribed rituals, wrote rituals, founded a wealth of different organisations, had a vast network and liked to collect titles, both Masonic and other.

From the early days of his life, detailed descriptions of Yarker’s Masonic career, the people he was in contact with, the orders that he founded, how people viewed him, how his work continued after his death (including the development of the OTO ritual) an extensive bibliography. Harrison created a wonderful biograpy of a wonderful man, a biography that was long overdue.

2024/5 Lewis Masonic

Hermes Unveiled – Cycliani (1915/2024)

Another V Bros translation. An alchemist that went by the name Cycliani wrote a report about his efforts in finding the philosopher’s stone.

The short book is a bit of a storytelling description of operations and what happens.

Not boring, but not all that interesting.

2024 V Bros

Theories And Symbols Of Hermetic Philosophy – Oswald Wirth (1910/2024)

This is a translation of Théories et symboles de la philosophie hermétique (1910). It is yet another V Bros transalation of Laura Gaie.

I bought a few V Bros Kindle publications at the same time and by the time I started reading Theories and Symbols I no longer remembered that it was of Wirth. It is but a short book (54 pages in print) and the whole time I was thinking: mildly interesting, not very groundbreaking or new.

Wirth presents some fairly basic alchemical and Hermetic ideas and makes a reference to Freemasonry here and there. The little book is not boring, but do not expect ‘revelations’.

2024 V Bros, isbn 2487364424

The Mason’s Words – Robert Davis (2013)

I bought this book because I cannot quite can get my head around the: “The History and Evolution of the American Masonic Ritual” as the subtitle of this book goes. Davis answers quite some questions, but it seems that he assumes that his audience has sufficient knowledge of contemporary American Freemasonry.

The book comes with an extraordinary lengthy introduction to the actual subject, but I understand why. Davis starts at the dawn of modern Freemasonry in England. He works himself through prehistory (“Old Charges”), early catechisms, exposures, the beginning of the third degree and most importantly, the different types of lodges that were founded in what was to become the USA.

Of course there was the ‘premiere Grand Lodge’ (1717), but there were other early Grand Lodges such as that of Ireland (1725), Scotland (1736) and more, who all chartered lodges in the colonies. This led to a great variety of different ways of working, results of which are still visible today in spite of many and lengthy attempts at uniformity.

And so you get the story of the lecturers / ritualists, early “monitors” and “cyphers” and how, in the end, large parts of American Freemasonry started to be somewhat similar, while other (grand) lodges wanted to stick to their ancient practices.

What I miss in this book is that the reader may get an idea of what is meant with “Preston/Webb”, but apparently the author thinks that his audience knows how the famous “York Rite” came to be. It is just suddenly there. Also differences in “Masonic ritual” are not as much different rites in the book, but variations to what is commonly known as “Preston/Webb”, while I assume that there are indeed different rites in the USA.

The book sure is interesting and I especially applaud Davis for being clear about the fact that different early Masonic traditions found their way to the colonies. This explains the patchwork of American Freemasonry, but an extra chapter about the York and other rites would be welcome.

2013 Building Stone Publishing, isbn 061585382X