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.
