I find the title of this book not too well chosen. The book is not about myths or legends, but a collection of essays investigating Masonic history. Pierre Mollier (1961-) is member of the Grand Orient de France, director of their museum in Paris and one of the most productive and interesting Masonic investigators of our time. Most of his work is written in French, so it is good that a compilation of his texts are made available in English. Only a few, the book is only 150 pages.
Some of the subjects in this book are much ‘in flux’ nowadays (early history of the ‘high degrees’), so it would have been nice to know when the different texts were written. Since the beginning of this millennium the investigation of the history of ‘high degrees’ has taken a high flight. This is mostly because the archives that the Nazis robbed and landed in Russia after WWII were returned. French archives proved to contain invaluable texts that had been gone for over half a century. Many old ritual texts, early versions of rituals that we still know, but also rituals that did not make it.
This is but one of the subjects in Mollier’s book though. He also writes about a Masonic book plate from 1657, connections between Freemasonry and Knightly orders, general early Masonic history, “the Jewish and Christian sources of the legend of the vault” and also French Masonic developments in the context of development of French society, etc.
All in all a nice little book. Hopefully also some of Mollier’s in depth investigations will become available in English as well.
2022 Westphalia Press, isbn 1637238282
