Emblematic Freemasonry, Building Guilds and Hermetic Schools: Foundations of Freemasonry Series

Member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and co-creator of probably the most famous and commonly used tarot deck, Arthur Edward Waite was also a prolific writer and prominent Freemason. Here he examines many of the adjacent intellectual movements, which were happening in Europe, prior to the creation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717, that many scholars have claimed were an influence on Masonry, such as Alchemy, Kabbalah, the Rosicrucian fraternity. Waite takes strong objection that such things have had any influence on the direction and symbols of the Masonic Fraternity.