Occult of Personality podcast

Robert W. Sullivan IV, author of The Royal Arch of Enoch: The Impact of Masonic Ritual, Philosophy, and Symbolism, is our guest in podcast episode 146.

Robert W. Sullivan IV is a philosopher, historian, antiquarian, jurist, theologian, writer, and lawyer. Mr. Sullivan is a Master Mason and 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason. The Royal Arch of Enoch: The Impact of Masonic Ritual, Philosophy, and Symbolism, published in 2012, was his first book being the product of twenty years of research. In 2014 Sullivan published his second book, Cinema Symbolism: A Guide to Esoteric Imagery in Popular Movies.

Sullivan’s book, The Royal Arch of Enoch, argues that a high degree Masonic Ritual, developed in France in the eighteenth century, included elements of the Book of Enoch (AKA 1 Enoch) which was considered lost until Freemason and traveler James Bruce returned to Europe with copies from Ethiopia in 1773. These copies were supposedly not translated into English until 1821. Sullivan also documents the symbolic restoration of the Sun as the premier icon in all of Freemasonry and as the supreme emblem of imperial administration and religiosity lifted from the Ancient Mysteries, incorporated in the Abrahamic faiths, and carried on in both Blue Lodge and High Degree Masonry.

Sullivan begins the interview describing how his esoteric interests, especially Freemasonry, were stimulated by studying Frances Yates’ writings while studying at Oxford University as a young man. Then he describes his journey to compose The Royal Arch of Enoch, a voluminous tome that clocks in at about 700 pages. His central thesis about the Holy Royal Arch Masonic degree(s) being derived from 1 Enoch associates the origins of Freemasonry with the Watchers, or fallen angels, and is therefore somewhat controversial.

In addition to the origins of the Royal Arch degree ritual, Sullivan also concentrates on the disparate philosophical streams that influenced Freemasonry, especially those of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation.
“… [B]oth systems (Craft Masonry and the High Degrees) were able to posit a view of mechanistic oneness as the end point of society which identified de-facto heresy with the solar drive to eliminate imperfection through Tridentine Counter Reformation militancy and high degree Masonic rituality. The Counter Reformation was begun at the Council of Trent between 1545 an 1563 at the close of the Thirty Years War. Its purpose consisted of four major elements: 1) Religious Orders, 2) Ecclesiastical Reconfiguration, 3) Spiritual Movements, and 4) Political Dimensions. It was, essentially, a reactionary movement based on the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther seeking to discourage, infiltrate, and thwart Protestantism at both outward (Baroque art and architecture) and secret levels. It is this thread or nexus between the Masonic High Degrees and the Catholic Revival that has fed so many wrong and confused theories of Illuminati-Masonic rooted conspiracies over the years. The more sober reality however is not dark conspiracy but a profound and subterranean alliance between Catholic magisterium and apologetics and the “cooler, rational mystique of ancient texts” to provide mythic legitimacy for the principle agenda of modernity – to recreate society along heliocentric lines at a metaphysical...