Freemasons, Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Carbonari, what role did they really play? – 2 Stars **

By Gabrielle Pantera

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 8/29/08 – “Since the days of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, the occult has entangled in its web the black arts of espionage, subversion, and revolution,” says ‘Secret Societies’ author Michael Howard. “Today it still affects politics. Participants in the occult conspiracy play their sometimes sinister games with the lives of millions of ordinary men and women.”

Howard’s book mostly consists of Pagan and Christian traditions presented as history. It covers several millennia of the covert forms of religious societies and their effects including German Nationalism, the Bolshevik Revolution, Nazism, and the Vatican. The chapter on Hitler’s ideology about the occult and anti-Christian origins is interesting. It presents the anti-Christian New Age movement as the future religion.

“I’ve been researching the links between secret societies, politics and the occult all of my adult life,” says Howard. “I started writing in 1975 and since then I have written 24 books on the runes, witchcraft, magic, herbalism, folklore and occult para-politics. I’ve written numerous articles for occult and pagan magazines and

since 1976 I’ve edited and published my own magazine on witchcraft and folklore called ‘The Cauldron’.”

“I have no plans to publish any further books on this subject,” says Howard. “I’m currently writing a series of three books on historical witchcraft in England, Wales and Scotland for Three Hands Press in the USA, on modern traditional witchcraft for Thoth Publications UK, and a history of modern Wicca for another well-known American publisher.” Howard has recently written articles on  occultists who worked for the British Intelligence Services MI5, MI6 and SOE, and also on the occult interests of Churchill., Roosevelt and Stalin

Howard is English by birth.

‘Secret Societies’ presents interesting facts, but is scholarly in tone, not a novel like ‘The DaVinci Code’. I wish the author hadn’t censored himself so much. It might have made for a more exciting read. Unfortunately, it came across as dry and seems a bit pro-conspiracy.

Note: ‘Secret Societies’ is the updated edition of ‘The Occult Conspiracy’ originally published in 1989.

‘Secret Societies: Their Influence and Power from Antiquity to the Present Day’
By Michael Howard
Trade  Paperback: 236 pages
Publisher: Destiny Books, Inner Traditions
December 11, 2007
ISBN 978-1594772030