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Download or read book Ritual America -- Expanded Edition written by Craig Heimbichner and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Masonic Brotherhoods and Fraternal organizations lose members and their once sacred buildings are converted to condos and conference centers, the notion of secret societies has become more formidable. There are as many conspiracies as there are books about these fraternal orders, each with an increasingly outlandish origin story. Whether descended from Lizards, or working to bring about the end of the world, or just meeting for Wednesday night bowling, Masonic Orders and Fraternal Brotherhoods play into our sense of intrigue. There are historical books that claim to unveil the mystic secrets of these orders, but they too are either too skeptical or too partisan to tell the true story. Ritual America reveals the biggest secret of them all: that the influence of fraternal brotherhoods on this country is vast, fundamental, and hidden in plain view. In the early twentieth century, as many as one-third of America men belonged to a secret society. And though fezzes and tiny car parades are almost a thing of the past, the Gnostic beliefs of Masonic orders are now so much a part of the American mind that the surrounding pomp and circumstance has become faintly unnecessary. The new and expanded edition of Ritual America includes even more rare images and entertaining and enlightening commentary making this esoteric subject provocative, exciting, and approachable. The late Adam Parfrey channeled his life-long interest of the American occult into this exhaustive 2012 tome documenting its pervasive influence on American culture. Parfrey's unexpected death in 2018 led co-author Craig Heimbichner and their publisher to revise and expand Ritual America to now include items and stories that had once been intended for a second volume. The original edition won the Independent Publishing Group Silver Medal Award in 2012.