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Albert Pike’s Esoterika – Arturo de Hoyos (2005)

Albert Pike (1809-1891) is perhaps the most famous of Freemasons and also one of the most influential ones, especially in the USA. Every so often I try to read his Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (1871), but every time I get stranded in the gigantic amount of words that Pike used to make his point.

Morals and Dogma is not universally applauded, but more and more I see that (mostly American) Masons suggest Esoterika when somebody asks about the esoteric side of Freemasonry. Arturo de Hoyos made it available, so I decided to give the work a try.

Esoterika is not a work of Pike, but a compilation made by De Hoyos. The texts are about “Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry”, hence, symbols of the degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. Pike investigates the original words that often became garbled Hebrew in Freemasonry (Pike sees Samaritan as the actual language and the religion of Zoroaster as the basis of Freemasonry), talks about passwords, the lost word, the Hiram myth, etc. etc.

Here and there are some interesting angles, but overall I still have the idea that Pike talks a lot, but doesn’t say too much. Esoterika certainly is not the ‘deep esoteric’ approach to Freemasonry you may expect.

2005 / 2022 Scottish Rite Research Society

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