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Devil Worship in France

Name: Devil Worship in France
Author: Arthur Edward Waite
ISBN: 9781602062269

by Arthur Edward Waite

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Overview

Do Freemasons worship Satan? It was once "common knowledge" that they did... until, ironically, a famous occultist debunked this preposterous belief. Waite, a preeminent 19th-century expert in esoterica, here examines the outrageous claims of Leo Taxil, who shot to fame in the 1880s and '90s with his stories about "Diabolism" among the Masons, ripping them to shreds in his uniquely sharp, droll voice and offering his own keen insights into Victorian mysticism along the way.

This highly entertaining work, a classic of rationalistic literature first published in 1896, will fascinate and delight students of secret societies, paranormal skeptics, and readers of the history of religion alike.

American-born British author ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE (1857-1942) was cocreator of the famous 1910 Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Among his numerous books are Book of Ceremonial Magic, The Holy Kabbalah, and New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.

About the Author, Arthur Edward Waite

About the Author
Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite (October 2, 1857 – May 19, 1942) was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of western occultism — viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of proto-science or as the pathology of religion.”

Waite was born in the United States. Waite's father, Capt. Charles F. Waite, died when he was at a very young age, and his widowed mother, Emma Lovell, returned to her home country of England, where he was then raised. As they were not well off, Waite was educated at a small private school in North London. When he was thirteen, he was then educated at St. Charles' College. When he left school to become a clerk he wrote verse in his spare time. The death of his sister, Frederika Waite, in 1874 soon attracted him into psychical research. At twenty-one he began to read regularly in the Library of the British Museum, studying many branches of esotericism.

When Waite was almost thirty years old, he married Ada Lakeman and they had one daughter, Sybil Waite. Some time after Lucasta's death in 1924, Waite married Mary Broadbent Schofield. He spent most of his life in or near London, connected to various publishing houses, and editing a magazine The Unknown World.

A.E. Waite joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E.W. Berridge. He became a Freemason in 1901, and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. The Golden Dawn was torn by further internal feuding until Waite's departure in 1914; later he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By that time there existed some half-dozen offshoots from the original Golden Dawn, and as a whole it never recovered.

Waite was a prolific author with many of his works being well received in academic circles. He wrote occult texts on subjects including divination, esotericism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and ceremonial magic, Kabbalism and alchemy; he also translated and reissued several important mystical and alchemical works. His works on the Holy Grail, influenced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, were particularly notable.