Collection of alarmist essays by Fundamentalists concerned about the spiritual perils presented by Freemasonry. Most are written by bean-spilling ex-Masons. Though a few essays bog down in chatter about the individual’s “growth in the Lord,” the bulk of these X-tians have made it their business to know the ways of The Enemy very, very well and produce thorough, if occasionally overwrought, evidence of Freemasonry’s historical links to a variety of occult systems.
Though the uninitiated may scoff, and the Masonic dupes of the lower three degrees (known as the “outer courtyard”) may take offense, a great number of well-known occult revivalists have taken the “craft” seriously enough to advance to Freemasonry’s highest degrees; this list includes founding members of the Golden Dawn, OTO, and the new “old religion” revived in Great Britain in the 1970s as Wicca. Even Theosophy’s Madame Blavatsky was initiated as a “Co-Mason,” the women’s version of the “ancient and accepted” boys’ club. And it is through Theosophy’s notion of the “Hidden Masters,” adapted by Alice Bailey (“Queen of the New Age”) as the Great White Brotherhood of Shambhala that several of the authors in this collection trace the influence of Freemasonry into the mainstream of today’s “alternative spirituality.”
Bailey and her husband (a Mason) believed that Freemasonry could be useful as a New World Religion and referred to the ancient all-seeing Brethren as “Master Masons of the Universe.” And since Shambhala floats in the AIR above the Gobi DESERT, and since the Bible characterizes demons as wasteland creatures and “spirits of the air”—well, YOU SEE what we’re talking about! And speaking of “All-Seeing,” what about the Masonic Founding Fathers putting that Eye on our currency and erecting that National Phallus we like to call the Washington Monument? Sex Magick! Ancient Fertility Rites! Yes, agrees another ex-Wiccan and ex-32-degree Mason! He points out dozens of similarities between Masonic and Wiccan initiations. Freemasonry was, after all, invented as a cover under which WITCHCRAFT could be practiced! And he concludes that “this is the abominable universal world religious system that Jesus Christ is returning to this earth to destroy!” One can only wish it would all turn out to be this interesting! RA

Publisher: Huntington House
Paperback: 224 pages

Amazing! THESE subterranean worlds are actually INSIDE the Earth! While the title might be worth a smile, the frontispiece photo of the author/editor is nothing short of surefire hilarity. A full page shot of Beckley in his best Dr. Who-style getup, bursting from his corduroys, clutching a walking stick and affecting an aristocratic sneer. The style carries into the writing with constant use of the royal “we” as well as inflated references to “our files” and “our correspondent.” And what all this reportage comes down to is a collection of anachronistic sci-fi stories presented as “firsthand accounts” of underground cities, etc. Several chapters, however, stand out for their fascinating exposition on the famous “Shaver Mystery,” the serialized visions of welder-writer Richard Shaver, who one day heard coming out of his welding gun “voices of endless complexity,” which he perceived as emanations from an ancient underground civilization of extraterrestrial origin and malevolent intent. Stories of Shaver’s “Deros” became the lifeblood of the magazine Amazing Stories and set the tone for many of the pulps to follow. Also includes an interesting debate between Shaver and the editor who shaped his visions, as well as Shaver’s later speculation on what he perceived to be ancient “cyclopean books” visible in various geological formations. RA

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 158 pages
Illustrated

OK, so there’s this ancient globe-spanning network of tunnels built by an extinct pre-Atlantean civilization, see? Hundreds of entrances, one probably conveniently located near you, some even in major American cities, like that one in Manhattan (press the “B” for basement twice!). But most are near mystical mountains like Mt. Shasta and Arizona’s Superstition Mountains, some in the Andes, some in Brazil. They also tend to have ancient Indian legends associated with them. Then there’s those two at the poles—that’s how you get to the “Underground Sun” or the capital of the Underworld, “Rainbow City.” (You’ll need a map; there are several in the book.) Deros here, Lemurians there, St. Germain stuck down some volcanic crater in the state of Washington. Underground near Dulce, New Mexico, is where the reptilian space people do all their genetic research on human subjects provided by the Trilateralist Illuminati mind-controllers of the Bechtel Corporation. “The struggle is NOW… Your assistance is needed! Prepare! We must preserve Humanity on Earth!” Thus saith Commander X! RA

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 127 pages
Illustrated

The state of Alabama, home to all 31 of the artists profiled here (as well as native-son-superstar Howard Finster), seems to abound in the kind of environments where sculpture gardens grow out of scrapyards and objet trouvé assemblage is commonplace “tinkering with junk.” Defined not only by their innovative use of humbler materials (at least two of the artists featured use mud as a primary ingredient of their compositions), these artists also thematically cluster around such concerns as formalist/idiosyncratic Christianity, hard times, patriotism, moral compulsion, childhood memories and civil rights. Many also share a whimsical, punning sense of humor light-years removed from irony.
More surprising are the parallels that characterize the evolution of each as an Outsider artist. The archetypal outsider bio would be as follows: early inclinations to isolation and introspection; the subject exhibited artistic talent which lay dormant for years; some misfortune occurred in later life—the artist was laid off, laid up or forced into retirement; the misfortune was often associated with religious epiphany, and was nearly always the reason for the individual turning to art; and the artist often borrowed materials from a previously practiced trade. While many of these profiles share a sort of gentle tragedy, some details seem to spring directly from the grotesque and brutal Southern Gothic of Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor. Memorable among these is Myrtice West’s religious blackout after which she awakened to find herself issuing apocalyptic warnings from the pulpit of an unfamiliar church, as well as her premonitions of her daughter’s murder in her presence at the hands of her son-in-law. Most fascinating, and certainly darkest of all, is the history of Juanita Rogers, whose humanoid animals sculpted from cow bones and mud in a one-room shack were created, she says, “for crippled people, crazy people, and colored people all over the world,” and who reports being brought to her current home on a “carnival train” from a place “where black mud swallows up the cars.” To their credit, the authors’ treatment never strays far from the straightforward tone of backyard conversation. Rev. Ben Perkins on his philosophy of art: “People love the American flag. If you can get a church and a flag both on a thing, and you’re not too high, then somebody’ll buy it.” RA

Publisher: Unknown
Hardback: 224 pages
Illustrated