ABSTRACT
Secret societies provide Romantic readers and writers with both the materials and the system itself, updated to reflect the needs and issues of their time. The number of avenues by which John Keats could have been exposed to hermeticism is higher than many suspects, and this is true even if we take only the general atmosphere of the period into account. Thomas De Quincey discounted the fabulous Masonic histories tracing the society back to Adam, he stressed it was widely accepted that, philosophically, Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism shared common goals. Masonic goals and philosophies were often bound to those of Mystery societies, including the Eleusinian and Pythagorean, as authors grouped them together and various degrees claimed to offer a means to work towards the quintessence. The end result of both the popularity and notoriety of the various Rosicrucian and Masonic societies was a blend of easily available information in which the philosophies, ideals and elements of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry became interchangeable.
