Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
The Secret History of the World

The Secret History of the World

Last updated on: December 26, 2013 at 5:46 am by John Beckett

The Secret History of the World 2013-12-25T10:55:56-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Secret History of the World As Laid Down by the Secret Societies

by Mark Booth
published in 2008 by Overlook Press
415 pages

“You must be mad, or you wouldn’t have come here.” This line from Alice in Wonderland concludes the introduction to The Secret History of the World As Laid Down by the Secret Societies by Mark Booth. You don’t have to be mad to read it, but if you don’t understand how to read it then it will surely drive you mad, in one sense of the word or another.

I just asked my wife the history teacher for a definition of history. She said “history is the story of humankind, as written by the victors.” This is the history you learned in school – the stories that are presented as objective truth but in reality are the interpretations of the narratives preferred by those in power. My anthropologist friend says “history tells us as much about those who write it as it does about what actually happened.”

The Secret History of the World was not written by the victors. It does not assume the primacy of science and materialism, nor does it follow the narrative of American Protestant Christianity.

In his presentation at the Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes conference in April, Professor Ronald Hutton tried to show how many historians are doing their best to discover facts and leave the storytelling to others. He gave the example of how the Lindow Man bog body was used as “proof” of Celtic human sacrifice because it fits into the story the victors have wanted to tell for 2000 years. But the facts are inconclusive – Lindow Man might have been a human sacrifice, but he also might have been an execution or a murder victim. He may have died in pre-Roman times, but it’s also possible he died during the Roman occupation or even after the Romans left. We simply can’t say with certainty.

The Secret History of the World was not written by this kind of historian. It does not present verifiable facts and plausible narratives.

This book will have Christians screaming “heresy!” polytheists screaming “blasphemy!” and atheists just screaming. Here’s a review from Salon from 2008, when the book came out.

you might conclude that The Secret History of the World is a truckload of drivel, and you would be right. It is a mess of a book, disjointed and rambling, rife with puzzling non sequiturs that are obviously meant to be suggestive or evocative but that more often read like the symptoms of an advanced case of Attention Deficit Disorder.

If I haven’t scared you off yet, read on.

I heard about The Secret History of the World in DruidCast episode 80 in November, when OBOD Chosen Chief Philip Carr-Gomm interviewed author Mark Booth (the book was published under the pseudonym Jonathan Black in the UK). Booth made it clear this was no attempt at objective history, but rather the history of the world as taught by the Western Mystery Tradition. It communicates mythic history – not the history of myths, but the mythos of the origin and development of humanity.

Read this book as the great myth of humankind and you’ll find it informative and inspiring. It draws from Babylon and Egypt, the Old Testament and the New, the Gnostics and Sufis. It follows the history of the occult through the alchemists, the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons. Its main point is this: humanity’s origins are in the world of spirit, and for several hundred thousand years the spirit world was as close and as real as the material world.

In the ancient world experience of spirits was so strong that to deny the existence of the spirit world would not have occurred to them. … Paucity of experience makes belief in disembodied spirits difficult today. In fact the Church teaches that belief is admirable because it is difficult. The more your belief is out of proportion to the evidence the better, it seems. This teaching would have seemed absurd to the people in the ancient world.

I find Booth’s explanation for this shift – the hardening of matter, forgetting our vegetable nature – to be implausible even when read mythically. But that the shift happened is undeniable. His statement that “the Third Eye was still much more active than it is today and had not yet become vestigial” strikes me as accurate, mythically if not literally.

And what strikes me as literally true is Booth’s assessment of Pythagoras and the mystery schools: “life can be explained in rational terms only up to a point. There is a vast irrational element in life, too.” We aren’t comfortable with this irrational element, so we ignore it or rationalize it away. Orthodox religion supports this. Booth says “Experience of the spirit worlds was replaced by dogma to be accepted on authority.”

As I read this – highlighter in hand – I wrote: “this is a key point, to be reversed.”

This is the value of The Secret History of the World: not its presentation of facts, but the story it tells and the narrative it presents.

Esoteric thinking has always sought to undermine and subvert conventional, habitual, mechanical modes of thought.

Is there anything our declining Western society needs more than the subversion of unreflective, unquestioned habitual ways of thinking? Is there anything we need less than “more of the same”?

Booth says “for most people the gradual withdrawal of the spirit worlds has been experienced with an increasing sense of alienation.” This alienation from the spirit world and from Nature herself is one of the primary roots of modern Paganism. We see the material advantages brought about first by agriculture and then by the industrial revolution. Even as we enjoy these material advances – as I type these words on a notebook computer in a warm and comfortable room on a 21 degree morning – our souls yearn for what has been lost.

Western society in general and the American empire in particular have begun their long descent. Booth’s predictions for the future draw too heavily from the Book of Revelation (a prophecy that has already come to pass but is continually recycled) but he’s got the basics right:

humans once had unhindered access to the spirit worlds. Then this access became obscured and dimmed as matter hardened. Now the barrier between ourselves and the spirit worlds is becoming thinner again. The material world is fraying and becoming threadbare.

If you’re expecting an exposé of occult secrets from The Secret History of the World you’ll be disappointed. If you’re expecting typical history you’ll be frustrated. But if you’re looking for a myth to show you how we got where we are and where we’re headed, give it a try.

The Secret History of the World

Western Mystery Tradition

Previous Post

December 22, 2013

Nine Things I Think

Next Post

December 29, 2013 Integration – A Review

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the Christian teaching about truth-telling?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Say nothing Flatter often Lie if necessary Speak the truth