eBook The Secrets of Masonic Washington: A Guidebook to Signs, Symbols, and Ceremonies at the Origin of America's Capital ePub

It is a good book where you will learn a few things about Washington D.C. and American history, but nothing special. A few of the connections it makes to masonic history make total sense, and a few others where it could be a case of coincidence. See for yourself!

I love finding signs and symbols in architecture an literature. This book has great pictures and give a description of what you will see on a walking tour of Washington DC. It's laid out by sections of the city for day trips and all the interesting places you should see with pictures and meanings behind their symbolism. Will definitely take it with me when we take a vacation there.

Not very god on answering the "why" certain monuments are relevant to masonry. Also the history of the influence of masons in early America was okay, but not outstanding. I learnt some things, but on the whole the book is only so-so.

A very nicely written book about something have been researching for over 30 years now. For the Illuminated mind, this book is awesome.
Arrived quickly and well packaged. Thank you.

Very informational and interesting to the Master Mason and non alike.

James Wasserman's 'The Secrets of Masonic Washington' appears at first to be an exciting premise--a full-color walking tour of Masonic symbolism in the city of Washington D.C. If you are looking for a specifically Masonic guidebook to the city, its title is slightly misleading. Nevertheless, its subtitle is perhaps a better description of what this book really is about: "A guidebook to signs, symbols and ceremonies at the origin of America's capital."

The result is a beautifully photographed volume that examines dozens of federal buildings and explains the symbolism of the colossal statuary and other decoration found on them. Like so many other authors who have ventured into the Federal Triangle with their eyes peeled for Masonic influences, convinced the Freemasons put their stamp all over the stone houses of power or the street map of the nation's capitol, Wasserman's book has a slight sense of schizophrenia. There is specific Masonic architecture in Washington and the surrounding neighborhoods like Alexandria. The buildings in the area Wasserman explores are indeed loaded with symbolism, much of it from the period of the Enlightenment, as interpreted by sculptors and painters over the last two hundred years. The Library of Congress alone could provide you with squinty eyes and a severe neck ache from searching its ceiling, columns and niches for imagery illustrative of the arts and sciences.

But is any of it specifically Masonic?

The philosophies of the Enlightenment are tied inextricably with the birth of Freemasonry, but Classical and Enlightenment art wasn't just conceived by Freemasons, and if you know Washington, you'll be a little frustrated at what Wasserman included and what he omitted. Actual Masonic buildings like the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple, the George Washington Masonic Memorial, the former Grand Lodge building (now the National Museum of Women in the Arts), and other overt examples are given little mention, or ignored completely.

That's not to say this isn't a good book. The chapters about Freemasonry and America that precede and follow the pictorial section are well researched, factual, beautifully written, and especially in his summation, passionate and very personal. I found his epilogue especially moving. Wasserman is not a Freemason--he is a longtime member of the Ordo Templari Orientis (O.T.O.), which based its original rituals on Masonic ceremonies, and later removed much of the overt Masonic influences. But his father and grandfather were Masons, and his interpretation of symbolism and philosophy--Masonic and otherwise--is insightful. He is well versed in esoteric symbolism (his 2005 book, 'The Mystery Traditions: Secret Symbols and Sacred Art,' is a beautiful survey of Western Mystery School imagery and philosophy).

If you are planning on a trip to Washington, 'The Secrets of Masonic Washington' is an interesting walking-tour book from the standpoint of adding deeper meaning to the "angels in the architecture" that glare down upon the befuddled taxpayers strolling along the National Mall. It's beautiful, insightful, and will make you look more closely at the work of architectural artistry than you may have done in the past.

How much of it that has anything to do with Freemasonry is open to interpretation.

(This review appeared in the September/October 2009 issue of The Scottish Rite Journal)

Very good read and informative. Enjoyed it to the last page.

very informative.
confirmed my expectations