Order of Unknown Philosophers. The Degree Rituals, from the original 1922 Typescripts (Leather and Silk Portfolio Limited to 100 Sets) by Waite, Arthur Edward - [2019]

UK: Hell Fire Club Books, [2019]. First Edition. Hardcover portfolio. Oblong quarto. Black leather spine over purple silk boards. Portfolio holds three books printed in full colour onto high quality oyster wove paper, hand sewn with silk ribbon in Fabriano Amaranto paper wraps. All components in near fine condition. Includes the First and Second Degree Rituals of the Order of Unknown Philosophers consisting of facsimiles of the original hand-annotated typescripts with an introductory essay. Waite constructed a ‘Secret Council of Rites’ in 1902 with the assistance of  M.W.Blackden and Palmer-Thomas, it was decided that news of the existence of the Secret Council should never be made known to anyone outside of it and wrote: “…we shall be indeed an occult Order of Unknown Philosophers”. After his experience of the Golden Dawn, Waite was in search of rituals leading to higher knowledge, and it was in 1901, with the help of M.W.Blackden another Golden Dawn initiate, that Waite began his search. Founded in 1903 and originally intended as a Secret Order to control the higher degrees of masonic and occult societies, A.E.Waites ‘Order of Unknown Philosophers’ was inspired by Martinism as well as by his experiences in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Inner Order of the Rosy Cross.