Mormon theology and mormon conversion rested in great measure on the accumulated traditions and predispositions of prepared peoples, traditions and predispositions shaped in great measure by familial connections and oral culture. But they also rested on more contemporary experiences with eighteenth-century reformulations of hermeticism, experiences shaped by influences coming from the broader culture, influences that were often carried by the culture of text and print. On the one hand, the rise of Freemasonry over the eighteenth century, compounded by the Romantic revival of the occult in the 1780s and 1790s and fused with a renewed millenarianism and dispensationalism, carried the promise of the restoration of ancient truths and even Adamic powers.