The latest edition of Acta Macionica saw the light a couple of months ago, but I do not think I saw any announcements anywhere and it is not listed on the Ars Macionica website yet. When time comes I guess. If you are interested, just send them an email.
For quite a couple of volumes, the Acta is an impressive book. As we got used to, it contains a variety of essays in three languages. Most are in French, several are in Dutch and two in English. Since most are in French and that is not really my language, I fairly rapidly went through the 600+ pages.
There are a couple of very interesting texts, but also texts that are less of my interest. Most notable are the texts of Koenraad Logghe, Jan Snoek and Roger Degol.
Even though the latest volume has been available or a couple of months, it took some effort to get hold of a copy. #27 Is again a massive journal of almost 400 pages with 21 essays. As we grew used to, the first texts are written-out talks held at the Ars Macionica research lodge. This includes the only text in English, one of David Harrison about Lord Byron.
The opening text in in Dutch and from the hand of the current Worshipful Master of the study lodge Koenraad Logghe. The author investigates how Freemasonry fits in the research of esotericism of scholars such as Antoine Faivre, Kocku von Stuckrad and Wouter Hanegraaff. Logghe ends his lengthy text with a very interesting Traditionalistic take on Freemasonry which is not entirely unlike the books of Fabio Venzi that I recently reviewed.
After this we alternately get a text in French and Dutch (and one in English), but towards the end the texts in French start to prevail. As I said before, I can read French, but not too well, so I simply tried to see how interesting the French texts were to see if I should put in some effort. One of the more interesting of these is about Paulus Riccius, the Christian Cabalist (hence the cover of the book) which seems to contain mostly fairly common information about (Christian) Cabala but with some links to Freemasonry. I would not mind a translation of this text!
Other texts contain one about doors and inside versus outside, 18th century Freemasonry, Der Zauberberg of Thomas Mann, women in (adoptive) Freemasonry by the Dutch scholar Jan Snoek who wrote in French, again some texts about Freemasonry during WWII and other subjects.
As always Acta Macionica makes a nice read, but only the texts in languages that I master I read attentively. The publication is not too expensive, so that is not too bad. Many of the 27 volumes are still available, so just have a look at the tables of content to see if any of them might interest you.
Somewhere in the summer (2017) I noticed that the website for the Belgian Masonic studylodge Ars Macionica was back online. Even though the link said ‘Acta Macionica volume 1 to 25’, the table of contents also had one of volume 26. I sent an email, but got no reply. Masonic lodges are usually closed during summer. With the start of the new working year, I was able to lay my hands on a copy of the latest Acta. Apparently not much advertisement has been made for it, since I have not seen any announcements for it.
#26 Has the impressive size of its predecessors, more than 350 pages in a well-printed and well-bound softcover. As we got used to, there are essays in different languages. One is on English, the rest is mostly alternately in Dutch and French. Also as we are used to, there is a big variety in subjects. The opening text is about Jan Amos Comenius. There are purely historical essays about subjects such as German field-lodges in Belgium or the confiscation of Masonic property during the second World War. Reprint of historical texts can be found next to a wonderful text (and main reason to get this volume) of Koenraad Logghe about the Masonic parallels in the Arthurian novel Torec by Jacob van Maerlant.
I do not find all texts as interesting as the next and I especially did not really read the texts in French. I can read French with a lot of effort, but I usually skipped through the texts to try to see if they were interesting enough to make that effort.
What I like mostly about the <emActas is that, even though it is a publication of the relatively small and only “regular” Grand Lodge of Belgium (the Regular Grand Lodge Of Belgium), there are also references to other Masonic orders and to subjects that caused schismas within Belgian Freemasonry.
So, the latest Acta Macionica again makes a good read with a few very interesting and with (to me) less interesting subjects. It helps if you master your languages, but since the book is not very expensive, it is still a good buy when you can only read half the book.
Only available from the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium. Click on the cover to go the the Ars Macionica website where you can find the tables of content of all 26 volume. I believe they are all available.