Although this is not a new book, I had never encountered it before. Occult conspiracies are nothing new, and distrust of Masons and Rosicrucians goes back at least a couple of hundred years.

There is a tendency for occult orders to claim extreme antiquity (well beyond provable time frames) and membership of individuals already deceased (thus making it impossible to ascertain the validity of the claims). This book continues that tradition.

There is nothing new or startling in the early part of this work, tying together, as it does, the Masons, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and the Priory of Sion, not to mention Sufi, assassins, and various Christian heresies. It does, however, bring this all together in an easily accessible place and format.

The occult orders and secret societies are seen as the motivating factors behind the American, French and Russian (Communist) revolutions, the outbreak of the First World War, and Nazism. These were all motivated , it seems, by a desire to free humanity from oppression by Christianity and nobility, and to return us to a Golden Age of paganistic beliefs. While these goals may be admirable, the execution of the actual plans appears to have suffered in the translation to action.

While attempting to discuss the actual history of occult orders, there is the problem caused by a simple lack of verifiable facts. Almost every order looked at claims an unbroken ancestry of centuries (if not millennia) and past membership by some of the greatest thinkers, politicians, and religious leaders of by-gone ages. Unfortunately it universally rests on a foundation of "tradition" and contact with "Masters" whose presence is not amenable to proof.

Still, this book is notable for assembling a great deal of data on the subject in an easily readable format, and all in one place. At $14.95 it is affordable and, for the most part, it is reliable. There are some minor typographical errors (the public practice of the occult was NOT banned by the Nazis in 1914, for example), but the quality is good, the writing style is crisp, and the overall appearance of the work is good.

While it is not a book which is, by any stretch of the imagination, a required reading book for the average Pagan or Wiccan, it belongs on a reference list for magicians and those occultists interested in the history of the occult movement.