The World disenchantment, re-enchantment, neo-tribalism and the Free Masonry

Abstract

: This contribution of mine, which addresses the themes of intellectualisation, rationalisation, disenchantment, death, civil religion, autonomy of styles, fourth secularisation and re-enchantment, seeks to outline the context in which to frame the current state of Italian Freemasonry. The question I am trying to answer is: “How did we get to this point?”. These are reflections on some of the writings of Max Weber (the themes of intellectualisation, rationalisation and disenchantment), Philippe Ariès (the theme of death), Luigi Berzano (the themes of the autonomy of styles and the fourth secularisation), Robert Neelly Bellah (the theme of civil religion), Michel Maffesoli (the theme of re-enchantment) and on two earlier research papers of mine on cognitive social deviance, already published. The first research work concerns a Masonic Academy in the Sicilian hinterland which, in the second half of the 18th century, worked in a network with other Academies in Palermo and Catania and with the Roman Arcadia and which can be traced back to the Neapolitan Masonic circles of Raimondo di Sangro, prince of San Severo, and the Sansevero Chapel. The second research work was conducted, both in the Masonic Order and in various Masonic Rites, using the method of participant observation, after initiation, within the two most – spirituality has now entered our everyday vocabulary. We encounter it more and more often and on the most diverse occasions, just as the number of those who define themselves using the formula is growing: I am spiritual, but not religious . To be spiritual is to engage in a search for meaning (for sense) without affiliating or recognising oneself in a specific organised religion, following paths that usually lie outside the traditional enclosures of the sacred drawn by churches or historical confessions (or civil religions). In Italy too, there is an increase in those who set out on the path of spirituality to rediscover a deeper relationship with nature, to achieve a state of inner well-being and in their relationship with others, to unveil the mysteries that surround us. From being a marginal phenomenon, spirituality has acquired a new visibility in our country ( see Palmisano e Pannofino, 2021, synthesis of the introduction ).