Dr. David Harrison

Category: Freemasonry

  • Down the Rabbit Hole – new fiction by David Harrison

    Down the Rabbit Hole – new fiction by David Harrison

    I’ve been writing short stories since the early 1990s, and have amassed quite a collection over the years, so when I was asked by Surrealist artist Jens Rusch to donate a short story for his visual project The Magic Carpet Lodge, I revisited my collection, and decided to publish six of my best short stories.  They all share similar themes of the occult and horror, some being written when I was in a band in the 1990s, others being written in the very early 2000s, so the influence of music and Freemasonry have filtered into some of them.

    I grew up with weekly doses of Tales of the Unexpected and the Hammer House of Horror TV series during the 1970s, and I liked how short contained stories about the occult could twist and turn, and how some of the stories conveyed on those series put forward how the the real world could easily merge with the unreal, so the audience was never sure if the stories entered a complete dreamlike world, giving them an ambient and abstract quality.

    I was also a fan of the Jerry Cornelius novels by Michael Moorcock, the early books being published in the 1960s and 1970s. These novels also have an abstract quality and create dreamlike landscapes, presenting stories that can either be interpreted as self-contained or as stories that merge as part of a series. Another inspiration for my writing were the Wonderland books by Lewis Carroll and the Oz stories by L Frank Baum; stories that told of otherworlds that could be accessed through portals of some kind. So, these influences all filtered into my own story writing, and allowed me to create new vistas and unusual characters that inhabit psychedelic and surrealistic dreamscapes.

    It was also a nice break from the academic work, and I hope you enjoy the new book.

    The book can be purchased in both Kindle and paperback formats from Amazon by clicking here, where a sample of the book can be viewed. 

  • Elihu Palmer, the Columbian Illuminati and Richard Carlile – a free paper to download from my Academia profile

    The following paper examines the little known story of the Columbian Illuminati and has been edited from my recent publication Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry. The book presents an in-depth examination of the Masonic work of the early nineteenth century English radical Richard Carlile, a work known as The Manual of Freemasonry. This book became popular with English Freemasons, and is not just an exposé of the Craft rituals, but also of the further or higher degrees. His exposé was first published in his journal The Republican in 1825, but later emerged in book form, combining his thoughts on Freemasonry with the presented rituals. There were many influences on this work, including Thomas Paine, who had also had a work published on Freemasonry, William Finch, who had published a variety of Masonic exposés, Freemason Godfrey Higgins, and Elihu Palmer.

    The short paper can be downloaded for free from my Academia profile via this link.

    The paper was published in the new Masonic journal Scriptorium, which can be seen on this link.

  • Jimmy Page, Boleskine House and the occult themes found in the British music scene of the 1960s and 1970s – free published paper to download

    Jimmy Page, Boleskine House and the occult themes found in the British music scene of the 1960s and 1970s – free published paper to download

    It was with great pleasure that I recently had a short paper published with the excellent Journal of the Boleskine House Foundation, Issue 5, (December 2021), which supports the rebuilding of the famed Boleskine House, in which occultist Aleister Crowley once resided and was more recently owned by rock musician Jimmy Page.

    My paper, entitled ‘Jimmy Page, Boleskine House and the occult themes found in the British music scene’ can now be downloaded for free from my Academia profile as a pdf, by clicking here.

    Boleskine House was gutted by fire a number of years ago, and it’s great to see that new work is taking place to restore such a historical building. The website for the Boleskine House Foundation can be found by clicking here.

    The title of the paper gives everything away, so I hope you enjoy it.

     

  • Freemasonry and the Islamic Mystical Movements of Balkan – Free Paper to Download from my Academia Page

    Freemasonry and the Islamic Mystical Movements of Balkan – Free Paper to Download from my Academia Page

    During my recent visits to Kosovo and Albania, I had the honour to be invited to visit the Halveti, Saadi and Bektashi Tekke’s and to meet the various Masters. This led to some research and the writing and subsequent publication of this paper with the Philalethes Journal last year. I had previously presented the paper to the online lecture series for the S.R.I.A. (Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia). I have thus posted it up on my Academia profile where it can now be downloaded for free as a pdf, via the link immediately below. I hope you enjoy it.

    ‘Freemasonry and the Islamic Mystical Movements of Balkan’, Philalethes: The Journal of Masonic Research & Letters, Vol.74, No.2, (Summer, 2021), pp.67-71.

    Abstract

    A recent visit to Kosovo in the Balkans gave me a glimpse into three Islamic Sufi Orders; the Bektashi, Saadi and Halveti. It was interesting to talk to the Masters of these Orders, and to learn how they use initiation and a culture of secrecy, while also providing a journey of spiritual discovery and development for the initiate in a learning environment of signs and symbols, achieving levels of spiritual knowledge—a journey that is perceived by some nineteenth century writers, such as John Yarker, as being reminiscent of the spiritual journey some may experience within Freemasonry. Indeed, Bektashi, Saadi and Halveti are but three of the twelve Sufi Orders that can be found in Kosovo, other examples being Bajrami and Mevlevi. This short paper attempts to explore and examine the perceived Masonic similarities to the Islamic Mystical Movements that can be found in the Balkan region, and will also discuss how the views of nineteenth century Orientalist writers assisted in popularising this view.

  • Some videos from a recent trip to Kosovo

    Some videos from a recent trip to Kosovo

    I’ve visited Kosovo and Albania a good number of times over the last few years, where I’ve had some Albanian language editions of some of my books published, notably A Quick Guide to Freemasonry, which was published in 2020 and Genesis of Freemasonry, which will be out soon.

    What I like about both Kosovo and Albania is that they are not short of bookshops, and most of the bookshops in Pristina and in Tirana are now stocking my work, and one of the videos includes myself visiting the Dukagjini Bookstore on Skanderbeg Square in Pristina for a book signing. I have also done several media interviews while in Kosovo and Albania to support my books, and one can be seen here. Even some of the bars and restaurants have books in them, such as the Soma book station in Pristina.

    I was also inspired to write a paper about the Bektashi, Saadi and Halveti practices and their noted similarities to certain Masonic practices, after visiting some of the Tekke’s in Prizren and Gjakova. Both Prizren and Gjakova are indeed spiritual centres of Kosovo, both maintaining a rich archaeological heritage and both having some fine architecture.

    The videos can be seen below, which I hope have captured a little of the essence of Kosovo. Please feel free to subscribe to my channel.

  • A Look Inside the New Edition of The Manual of Freemasonry by Richard Carlile

    A Look Inside the New Edition of The Manual of Freemasonry by Richard Carlile

    A look inside the new edition of Richard Carlile’s Manual of Freemasonry, with foreword by Dr David Harrison, published by Masonica in 2021. The high degrees presented in The Manual of Freemasonry were discussed at length in my book Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry.

    The video can be seen below. Feel free to subscribe to my channel.

  • A Look inside the new Scriptorium Masonic Journal

    A Look inside the new Scriptorium Masonic Journal

    This is a look into the very first edition of the Scriptorium Journal, published in Bucharest in Romania. An excellent journal revealing a high standard of Masonic research and including a great collection of peer reviewed papers and reviews. The journal is a product of the Scriptorium Lodge in Romania. Copies of the journal will be sent to various Masonic libraries worldwide. It is my honour to be on the Scientific Board of the journal and a number of my short papers are included in this first edition.

    Copies of the journal can be obtained by contacting myself or the Scriptorium Lodge. For reviews to be included in the next edition, please drop me a message.

    The video can be seen below. Please feel free to subscribe to my channel.

     

  • A Look inside my Book Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry

    A Look inside my Book Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry

    A look at my book Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry, the second book in the Lost Rites series. The book explores the early nineteenth century English radical Richard Carlile and his expose, which became known as The Manual of Freemasonry. Some of the high degrees in the work had been practiced in the Rite of Seven Degrees some decades previously.

    The title of the book should have been ‘The Masonic Rituals of Richard Carlile’ but Carlile – a radical from the early nineteenth century and a non-Mason, was probably still deemed too risqué for a book title by Lewis Masonic. Despite this, the book flows well into my latest work The Rite of Seven Degrees, and rightly takes its place in the Lost Rites series.

    The video can be seen below. Please feel free to subscribe to my channel.

     

  • A Look inside my Book A Quick Guide to Freemasonry

    A Look inside my Book A Quick Guide to Freemasonry

    A Quick Guide to FreemasonryIn 2013, I was commissioned by publisher Lewis Masonic to put together a question and answer book especially for lodge mentors and new members, and this book became A Quick Guide to Freemasonry, and incidentally it became my first foreign language edition a number of years later. It includes questions and answers on all things Masonic, from the lodge offices, the ritual, Masonic symbolism and Masonic regalia, all drawn from my experiences and from my previous works, the book being given a historical and academic approach, and is thus filled with references and footnotes to guide the reader further.

    The video can be seen below, and please feel free to subscribe to my channel.

     

  • A Look inside my Book A Journey Through Freemasonry – my first collection of Masonic essays

    A Look inside my Book A Journey Through Freemasonry – my first collection of Masonic essays

    The book A Journey through Freemasonry is my first collection of Masonic essays, papers and articles, published in December 2019. The book includes articles on Lord Byron and his involvement in the Carbonari, the Hell Fire Club, Liverpool’s Williamson Tunnels and the involvement of various Freemasons in revolutions during the Age of Enlightenment. The cover of the work included a study of a portrait of the author by the multi talented American portrait artist Zhenya Gershman. The book is published by Arima Publishing and the video can be seen below. Feel free to subscribe to my channel.