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Theosophy House
Glimpses of
Masonic History
by
C
The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
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1926
CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
CHAPTER I
SCHOOLS OF MASONIC
THOUGHT
The Origins of
Masonry. The Authentic School. The Anthropological School. The
CHAPTER II
THE EGYPTIAN
MYSTERIES
The Message of the
World Teacher. The Gods of
CHAPTER III
THE CRETAN
MYSTERIES
The Unity of the
Mysteries. Life in Ancient
Altar Objects.
Various Symbols. The Statuettes.
CHAPTER IV
THE JEWISH
MYSTERIES
The Jewish Line of
Descent. The Jewish Migrations. The Prophets. The Builders of K.S.T. The
Recasting of the Rituals. The Mingling of Traditions. The Transmission of the
New Rites. The Essenes and the Christ. Kabbalism. The Spiritualization of the
CHAPTER V
THE GREEK MYSTERIES
The Eleusinian
Mysteries. The Origin of the Greek Mysteries. The Gods of
Three Degrees. Other Greek Mysteries.
CHAPTER VI
THE MITHRAIC
MYSTERIES
Zarathustra and
Mithraism. Mithraism among the Romans. The Mithraic Rites. The Roman Collegia.
The Work of King Numa. The Colleges and the Legions. The Introduction of the
Jewish Form. The Transition to the Operatives.
CHAPTER VII
CRAFT MASONRY IN
MEDIAEVAL TIMES
Evolutionary
Methods. The Withdrawal of the Mysteries. The Christian Mysteries. The
Repression of the Mysteries. The Crossing of Traditions. The Two Lines of
Descent. The Culdees. Celtic Christianity in
CHAPTER VIII
OPERATIVE MASONRY
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
The Temporary
Custodians. Decline of the Collegia. The Comacini. The Comacine Lodges. Other
Survivals of the Collegia. The Compagnonnage. The Stonemasons of
CHAPTER IX
THE TRANSITION
FROM OPERATIVE TO SPECULATIVE
The Reformation.
The Reappearance of Speculative Masonry. The First Minutes. Scottish Minutes.
English Minutes. Irish Minutes. The Grand Lodge of
CHAPTER X
OTHER LINES OF
MASONIC TRADITION
The Stream of
Secret Societies. The Knights Templars. The
Suppression of the Templars. The Preservation of the Templars'
Tradition. The Royal Order of
CHAPTER XI
THE SCOTTISH
RITE
Origin of the
Rite. The Jacobite Movement. The Oration of
Ramsay. The Chapter of Clermont. The Council of Emperors. Stephen Morin.
CHAPTER XII
THE CO-MASONIC
ORDER
The Restoration of
an Ancient Landmark. The Succession of Co-Masonry. The Co-Masonic Rituals. The
Future of Masonry
APPENDIX I.
Degrees of the
Rite of Perfection
II. Principal
Masonic Events from 1717
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Author's Preface
WHEN I wrote The
Hidden Life in Freemasonry, it was at first my intention to devote my second
chapter to a brief outline of Masonic history. I soon found that that plan was
impractical. The most compressed account that would be of any use would occupy
far more space than I could spare, and would entirely overweight the book with
what is after all only one department of its subject. The obvious alternative is
to publish the historical sketch separately; hence this book, which is really
but a second volume of the other.
The keynote of
both volumes, and indeed the only reason for their publication, is to explain
precisely what the title indicates - the hidden life in Freemasonry - the
mighty force in the background, always at work yet always out of sight, which
has guided the transmission of the Masonic tradition through all the
vicissitudes of its stormy history, and still inspires the utmost enthusiasm and
devotion among the Brn. of the Craft to-day.
The existence and
the work of the Head of all true Freemasons is the one and sufficient reason
for the virility and power of this most wonderful Organization. If we
understand His relation to it and what He wishes to make of it, we shall also
understand that it embodies one of the finest schemes ever invented for the
helping of the world and for the outpouring of spiritual force.
Many of our Brn.
have been for many years unconsciously taking part in this magnificent
altruistic work; if they can be brought to comprehend what it is that they are
doing and why, they will continue the great work more happily and more
intelligently, throwing into it the whole strength of their nature both bodily
and spiritual, and enjoying the fruit of their labours far more definitely than
ever before.
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CHAPTER I
. Schools of
Masonic Thought
A HISTORY of Freemasonry would be a colossal
undertaking, needing encyclopaedic knowledge and many years of research. I have
no pretension to the possession of the qualities and the erudition required for
the production of such a work; all I can hope to do is to throw a little light
upon some of the dark spots in that history, and to bridge over to some extent
some of the more obvious gaps between the sections of it which are already well
known.
THE ORIGINS OF MASONRY
The actual origins of Freemasonry, as I
have said in a previous book, are lost in the mists of antiquity. Masonic
writers of the eighteenth century speculated uncritically upon its history,
basing their views upon a literal belief in the history and chronology of the
Old Testament, and upon the curious legends of the Craft handed down from
operative times in the Old Charges. Thus it was put forward in all seriousness
by Dr. Anderson in his first Book of Constitutions that "Adam, our first
parent, created after the Image of God, the great Architect of the Universe,
must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry, written on his
Heart," while others, less fanciful, have attributed its origin to
Abraham, Moses, or Solomon. Dr. Oliver, writing as late as the first part of
the nineteenth century, held that Masonry, as we
have it to-day, is the only true relic
of the faith of the patriarchs before the flood, while the ancient Mysteries of
Egypt and other countries, which so closely resembled it, were but human
corruptions of the one primitive and pure tradition.
As scientific and historical knowledge
progressed in other fields of research, and especially in the criticism of the
Scriptures, scientific methods were gradually applied to the study of Masonry,
so that today there exists a vast body of fairly accurate and most interesting
information upon the history of the Craft. In consequence of this and other
lines of investigation there are four main schools or tendencies of Masonic
thought, not in any way necessarily defined or organized as schools, but
grouped according to their relation to four important departments of knowledge
lying primarily outside the Masonic field. Each has its own characteristic
approach towards Freemasonry; each has its own canons of interpretation of
Masonic symbols and ceremonies, although it is clear that many modern writers
are influenced by more than one school.
THE AUTHENTIC SCHOOL
We may consider first what is sometimes
called the
This school, however, has limitations
which are the outcome of its very method of approach. In a society as secret as
Masonry there must be much that has never been written down, but only
transmitted orally in the Lodges, so that documents and records are but of partial
value. The written records of
speculative Masonry hardly antedate the revival in 1717, while the earliest
extant minutes of any operative Lodge belong
to the year .* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, by D. Murray-Lyon,
p. .) The tendency of this school, therefore, is quite naturally to derive
Masonry from the operative Lodges and Guilds of the Middle Ages, and to suppose
that speculative elements were later grafted upon the operative stock - this
hypothesis being in no way contradicted by existing records. Bro. R. F. Gould
affirms that if we can assume the symbolism (or ceremonial) of Masonry to be
older than 1717, there is practically no limit whatever to the age that can be
assigned to it* (*Concise History of Freemasonry, by R. R Gould, p. .); but
many other writers look for the origin of our Mysteries no further back than
the mediaeval builders.
Amongst this school there is a tendency,
also very natural when such a theory of origin is held, to deny the validity of
the higher degrees, and to declare, in accordance with the Solemn Act of Union
between the two Grand Lodges of the Freemasons of England, in December, 1813,
that "pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz.,
those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason,
including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch."* (*Book of
Constitutions, 1884, p. .) All other degrees and rites are, among the more
rigid followers of this school, looked upon as Continental innovations and are
accordingly rejected as "spurious" Masonry.
10 As far as interpretation goes, the
authentics have ventured but little further than a moralization upon the
symbols and ceremonies of Masonry as an adjunct to Anglican Christianity.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCHOOL
A second school, still only in process of
development, is applying the discoveries of anthropology to a study of Masonic
history, with remarkable results. A vast amount of information upon the
religious and initiatory customs of many peoples, both ancient and modern, has
been gathered by anthropologists; and Masonic students in this field have found
many of our signs and symbols, both of the Craft and higher degrees, in the
wall-paintings, carvings, sculpture and buildings of the principal races of the
world. The
The Anthropologists do not confine their
studies to the past alone, but have investigated the initiatory rites of many
existing tribes, both in Africa and Australia, and have found them to possess
signs and gestures still in use among Masons. Striking analogies to our Masonic
rites have also been found among the inhabitants of
Among pioneers in this field we should
mention Bro. Albert Churchward, the author of several interesting books on the
Egyptian origin of Masonry, although it may be that he is not always quite
sufficiently critical; Bro. J. S. M. Ward, the author of Freemasonry and the
Ancient Gods, Who was Hiram Abiff? and a number of other works, who looks to
Syria as the source of Masonry, though he has compiled a mass of valuable
information from many other lands; and Mr. Bernard H. Springett, author of
Secret Sects of Syria and Lebanon, who has collected much material bearing
upon Masonic rites among the Arabs.
To the work of the
Another important work which has been
accomplished by its efforts is the justification of many of the higher degrees
to be considered "pure Antient Masonry"; for in spite of the
pronouncement of the Grand Lodge of England quoted above, there is just as much
evidence for the extreme antiquity of Rose-Croix as of Craft and Arch signs and
symbols, and the same may be said of the signs of many other degrees as well.
It is quite clear from the researches of anthropologists that, whatever may be
the precise links in the chain of descent, we in Masonry are the inheritors of
a very ancient tradition, which has for countless ages been associated with the
most sacred mysteries of religious worship.
THE
A third school of Masonic thought, which we
may call the Mystical, approaches the mysteries of the Craft from another standpoint
altogether, seeing in them a plan of man's spiritual awakening and inner
development. Thinkers of this school, on the record of their own spiritual
experiences, declare that the degrees of the Order are symbolical of certain
states of consciousness which must be awakened in the individual initiate if he
aspires to win the treasures of the spirit. They give testimony of another and
far higher nature upon the validity of our Masonic rites - a testimony that
belongs to religion rather than to science. The goal of the mystic is conscious
union with God, and to a Mason of this school the Craft is intended to portray
the path to that goal, to offer a map, as it were, to guide the feet of the
seeker after God.
Such students are often more interested in
interpretation than in historical research. They are not primarily concerned in
tracing an exact line of descent from the past, but rather in so living the
life indicated by the symbols of the Order that they may attain to the
spiritual reality of which those symbols are the shadows. They hold, however,
that Masonry is at least akin to the ancient Mysteries, which were intended for
precisely the same purpose - that of offering to man a path by which he might
find God; and they deplore the fact that the majority of our modern Brn. have
so far forgotten the glory of their Masonic heritage that they have allowed the
ancient rites to become little more than empty forms. One well-known
representative of this school is Bro. A. E. Waite, one of the finest Masonic
scholars of the day, and an authority upon the history of the higher degrees.
Another is Bro. W. L. Wilmshurst, who has given some beautiful and deeply
spiritual interpretations of Masonic symbolism. This school is doing much to
spiritualize masculine Masonry, and the deeper reverence for our mysteries that
is becoming more and more apparent is without doubt one of the marks of its
influence.
20 THE OCCULT SCHOOL
The fourth school of thought is represented by
an evergrowing body of students in the Co-Masonic Order, and is gradually
attracting adherents in masculine Masonry also. Since one of its chief and
distinctive tenets is the sacramental efficacy of Masonic ceremonial when duly
and lawfully performed, we may perhaps not improperly term it the sacramental
or occult school. The term occultism has been much misunderstood; it may be
defined as the study and knowledge of the hidden side of nature by means of
powers which exist in all men, but are still unawakened in the majority -
powers which may be aroused and trained in the occult student by means of long
and careful discipline and meditation.
The goal of the occultist, no less than that
of the mystic, is conscious union with God; but the methods of approach are
different. The aim of the occultist is to attain that union by means of
knowledge and of will, to train the whole nature, physical, emotional and mental,
until it becomes a perfect expression of the divine spirit within, and can be
employed as an efficient instrument in the great plan which God has made for
the evolution of mankind, which is typified in Masonry by the building of the
holy temple. The mystic, on the other hand, rather aspires to ecstatic union
with that level of the divine consciousness which his stage of evolution
permits him to touch.
The way of the occultist lies through a
graded series of steps, a pathway of Initiations conferring successive
expansions of consciousness and degrees of sacramental power; that of the mystic
is often more individual in character, a "flight of the alone to the
Alone," as Plotinus so beautifully expressed it. To the occultist the
exact observance of a form is of great importance, and through the use of
ceremonial magic he creates a vehicle through which the divine light may be
drawn down and spread abroad for the helping of the world, calling to his aid
the assistance of Angels, nature-spirits and other inhabitants of the invisible
worlds. The method of the mystic, on the other hand, is through prayer and
orison; he cares nothing for forms and, though by his union therewith he too is
a channel of the divine Life, he seems to me to lose the enormous advantage of
the collective effort made by the occultist, which is so greatly strengthened
by the help of the higher Beings whose presence he invokes. Both these paths
lead to God; to some of us the first will appeal irresistibly, to others the
second; it is largely a matter of the Ray to which we belong. The one is more
outward-turned in service and sacrifice; the other more inward-turned in contemplation
and love.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE OCCULTIST
The student of occultism, therefore, learns
to awaken and train for scientific use the powers latent within him, and by
their means he is able to see far more of the real meaning of life than the man
whose vision is limited by the physical senses. He learns that each man is in
essence divine, a veritable spark of God's fire, gradually evolving towards a
future of glory and splendour culminating in union with God; that the method of
his progress is by successive descents into earthly bodies for the sake of
experience, and withdrawals into worlds or planes which are invisible to
physical eyes. He finds that this progress is governed by a law of eternal
justice, which renders to each man the fruit of that which he sows, joy for
good and suffering for evil.
He learns, too, that the world is ruled,
under the will of T.M.H., by a Brotherhood of Adepts, who have Themselves
attained divine union, but remain on earth to guide humanity; that all the
great religions of the world were founded by Them, according to the needs of
the races for which they were intended, and that within these religions there
have been schools of the Mysteries to offer to those who are ready a swifter
path of unfoldment, with greater knowledge and opportunities for service; that
this Path is divided into steps and degrees: the probationary Path, or the
Lower Mysteries, wherein the candidates are prepared for discipleship, and the
Path proper, or the Greater Mysteries, in which are conferred within the Great
White Lodge itself five great Initiations, which lead the disciple from the
life of earth to the life of adeptship in God, to become "a living
flame," as it is said, "for the lighting of the world." He is
taught that God, both in the universe and in man, shows Himself as a Trinity of
Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, and that these Three Aspects are represented in
the Great White Lodge in the Persons of its three chief Officers, through whom
the mighty power of God descends to men.
THE OCCULT RECORDS
It will be seen that this occult knowledge
depends no more upon the study of books and records than do the experiences of the
mystics; both belong to a higher order of consciousness, the existence of which
cannot be satisfactorily demonstrated on the physical plane. Nevertheless, the
study of the physical-plane records of the past is of value in confirming the
historical researches of the trained occultist, who is able to read what are
sometimes called the akashic records, and so to acquire an accurate knowledge
of the past. This subject is so little understood that it may perhaps be useful
if at this point I quote somewhat at length from a book entitled Clairvoyance
which I wrote many years ago:
On the mental plane (the records) have two
widely different aspects. When the visitor to that plane is not thinking
specially of them in any way, these records simply form a background to
whatever is going on, just as the reflections in a pier-glass at the end of a
room might form a background to the life of the people in it. It must always be
borne in mind that under these conditions they are really merely reflections
from the ceaseless activity of a great Consciousness upon a far higher plane. .
30 But if the trained investigator turns his
attention especially to any one scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an
extraordinary change at once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and
to think of anything is to bring it instantaneously before you. For example,
if a man wills to see the record of the landing of Julius Caesar in England,
he finds himself in a moment . standing on the shore among the legionaries,
with the whole scene being enacted around him, precisely in every respect as he
would have seen it if he had stood there in the flesh on that autumn morning in
the year 55 B.C. Since what he sees is but a reflection, the actors are of
course entirely unconscious of him, nor can any effort of his change the course
of their action in the smallest degree, except only that he can control the
rate at which the drama shall pass before him - can have the events of a whole
year rehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stop the
movement altogether, and hold any particular scene in view as a picture as
long as he chooses.
In truth he observes not only what he would
have seen if he had been there at the time in the flesh, but much more. He
hears and understands all that the people say, and he is conscious of all their
thoughts and motives; and one of the most interesting of the many possibilities
which open up before one who has learnt to read the records is the study of the
thought of ages long past - the thought of the cave-men and the lake-dwellers
as well as that which ruled the mighty civilizations of Atlantis, of Egypt or
Chaldaea. What splendid possibilities open up before the man who is in full
possession of this power may easily be imagined. He has before him a field of
historical research of most entrancing interest. Not only can he review at his
leisure all history with which we are acquainted, correcting as he examines it
the many errors and misconceptions which have crept into the accounts handed
down to us; he can also range at will over the whole story of the world from
its very beginning, watching the slow development of intellect in man, the
descent of the Lords of the Flame, and the growth of the mighty civilizations
which They founded.
Nor is his study confined to the progress of
humanity alone; he has before him, as in a museum, all the strange animal and
vegetable forms which occupied the stage in days when the world was young; he
can follow all the wonderful geological changes which have taken place, and
watch the course of the great cataclysms which have altered the whole face of
the earth again and again.
In one especial case an even closer sympathy
with the past is possible to the reader of the records. If in the course of his
inquiries he has to look upon some scene in which he himself has in a former
birth taken part, he may deal with it in two ways; he can either regard it in
the usual manner as a spectator (though always, be it remembered, as a spectator
whose insight and sympathy are perfect), or he may once more identify himself
with that long-dead personality of his - may throw himself back for the time
into that life of long ago, and absolutely experience over again the thoughts
and the emotions, the pleasures and the pains of a prehistoric past.
In the light of this occult knowledge (which
is within the reach of the inner sight) Masonry is seen to be far greater and
holier than its initiates appear generally to realize. As tradition has always
indicated, it is found to be a direct descendant of the Mysteries of Egypt
(once the heart of that splendid faith whose wisdom and power were the glory of
the ancient world - those Mysteries which were the parent and prototype of the
secret schools of other neighbouring lands), and its purpose is still to serve
as a gateway to the true Mysteries of the Great White Lodge. It offers to its
initiates far more than a mere moralization upon building tools, and yet it is
"founded upon the purest principles of piety and virtue," for
without the practice of morality and the living of the ethical life no true
spiritual progress is possible.
The ceremonies of Freemasonry (those at
least of its higher degrees) are dramatizations, as it were, of sections of the
invisible worlds, through which the candidate must pass after death in the
ordinary course of nature - which also he must enter in full consciousness during
the rites of initiation into those true Mysteries of which Masonry is a
reflection. Each degree relates to a different plane of nature, or to an aspect
of a plane, and possesses layer after layer of meaning applicable to the
consciousness of T.G.A.O.T.U., the constitution of the universe, and the
principles in man, according to the occult law formulated by Hermes
Trismegistus and adopted by Rosicrucians, alchemists and students of the
Kabbala in later ages: "As above, so below." The Masonic rites are
thus rites of the probationary Path, intended to be a preparation for true
Initiation, to be a school for training the Brn. for the far greater knowledge
of the Path proper.
THE SACRAMENTAL POWER
To the occult student Masonry has also
another aspect, of the greatest importance, concerning which I have written in The
Hidden Life in Freemasonry It is not only a wonderful and intricate system of
occult symbols enshrining the secrets of the invisible worlds; it has also a
sacramental aspect which is of the utmost beauty and value not only to its
initiates but to the world at large. The performance of the ritual of each
degree is intended to call down spiritual power, first to assist the Bro. upon
whom the degree is conferred to awaken within himself that aspect of
consciousness which corresponds to the symbolism of the degree, as far as it
can be awakened; secondly to aid in the evolution of the members present; and
thirdly and most important of all, to pour out a flood of spiritual power
intended to uplift, strengthen and encourage all members of the Craft.
Some years ago I undertook an investigation
into the hidden side of the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and published
the results of that investigation in a book called The Science of the
Sacraments. Those who have read that book will remember that the shedding
abroad of spiritual power is one great object of the celebration of the Holy
Eucharist, and of other services of the Church, and that it is attained by the
invocation of an Angel to build a spiritual temple in the inner worlds with the
aid of the forces generated by the love and devotion of the people, and the
charging of that temple with the enormous power called down at the consecration
of the Sacred Elements. A somewhat similar result is achieved during the
ceremonies performed by the Masonic Lodge, although the plan is not exactly the
same, being indeed far older; and each of our rituals, when properly carried
out, likewise builds a temple in the inner worlds, through which the spiritual
power called down at the initiation of the candidate is stored and radiated.
Thus Masonry is seen, in the sacramental sense as well as the mystical, to be
"an art of building spiritualized," and every Masonic Lodge ought to
be a channel of no mean order for the shedding of spiritual blessing over the
district in which it labours.
Sometimes orders and rites which were once
channels of great force have admitted, as the years passed by, Brn. less worthy
than their predecessors - Brn. who thought more of their own gain than of service
to the world. In such cases the spiritual powers associated with those grades
were either entirely withdrawn by the H.O.A.T.F.,* (*See The Hidden Life in
Freemasonry, pp. 15, .) to be introduced later into some other and more
suitable group, or allowed to remain dormant until more fitting candidates
should be found to hold them worthily - the bare succession passing down and
transmitting, as it were, the seeds of the power, although the power itself
was largely in abeyance.
40 On the other hand, there have been cases in
which a rite or grade has been manufactured by a student who wished to throw
some great truth into ceremonial form, but knew little of all this inner side
of Masonry; if such a degree or rite were doing useful work and attracting
suitable candidates, sacramental powers fitted for that rite or grade were
sometimes introduced into it, either by some Bro. on the physical plane who
possessed one of the lines of succession mentioned above, which was then
adapted by the H.O.A.T.F. for the work, or by a direct and non-physical
interference from behind.
Furthermore, the inner effect of a given
degree, even in a rite that may be fully valid, may vary greatly with the
degree of advancement and general attitude of the Bro. upon whom it is
conferred; so that in one case, let us say, the 33 ° would confer stupendous
spiritual power, and in another, less worthy, the powers given would be much
smaller, because of the candidate's incapacity to respond fully to them. In
such cases a fuller degree of power will manifest itself as greater advancement
is made in the development of character. It also appears to be possible for
power to be temporarily withdrawn in cases of evil-doing by one of the Brn.,
and to be restored later when the evil-doing has ceased.
All this may seem a little bewildering to
the student of the form side of Masonry; and indeed it is a fact that there is
but little means on the physical plane of judging the inner effect of a given
degree without reference to those who may be working it. It may however be
generally stated that the chief lines of Masonic tradition - those which are of
the greatest inner or spiritual value - are the Craft degrees, upon which all
other grades are superimposed, the Mark and the Arch degrees, and the chief
degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, the 18 °, 30 ° and 33 °. Other degrees that are worked have their
own peculiar powers, and these are often valuable; but the grades which I have
mentioned are those which are considered by the H.O.A.T.F. to be of the
greatest value to our present generation, and they are therefore those which
are worked at present in the Co-Masonic Order. Another line of great interest,
though very different from any other degrees existing among us, is that of the
rites of Memphis and Mizraim, which are relics in their occult power, although
not in their form, of perhaps the very oldest Mysteries existing upon earth.
These too have their part to play in the future, as in the past, and they have
therefore been preserved and transmitted to us in the present day.
THE FORM AND THE LIFE
In all cases we must realize that the form
of the degrees of Masonry and their life are two very different things,
although of course in a perfect system, as in that of the ancient Mysteries at
the height of their glory, they would correspond perfectly. Masonry is yet in a
transitional stage, and is but emerging from the ignorance of the Dark Ages.
The rites of Memphis and Mizraim are an example of this discrepancy. These
colossal systems of 96 ° and 90 ° respectively are a mass of artificially-manufactured
ceremonies, of but little value to a Masonic student except as a record of
high-grade Masonic invention in France at the end of the eighteenth century.
Most of the degrees have little occult power, and have simply been inserted
into the rites by Brn. who could have known nothing of their real purpose; but
behind the rites and quite independent of the form side of the tradition a line
of succession has been handed down from a past even more ancient than that of
the Scottish Rite itself. Even in the Scottish Rite many of the intermediate
degrees are of but little occult value.
The whole position will be best understood
if it can be realized that the plan of Masonry is in the hands of the
H.O.A.T.F., who rules His mighty Order with perfect justice and the most
marvellous skill, so that all that can be done is done for the greatest good of
all. The powers that stand behind Freemasonry are great and holy, and it is but
right that they should be conferred in their fullness only upon those who are
likely to use them as they should be used and to treat them with the reverence
they deserve. There is a great and glorious reality in the background all the
time, ever pressing towards realization, and employing whatever channels are
available for its manifestation. Whatever can be used is always used to the
very fullest extent, and none need fear that he is overlooked. It is obvious,
however, that where the Brn. think more of gratifying their own vanity than of
the Hidden Work, where they spend their time in banqueting and revelry and
curtail the sacred ritual in order that they may adjourn as quickly as possible
to the South, they are less worthy channels of the Divine Glory than those more
spiritual Brn. who are willing to study and to understand. All the time the
H.O.A.T.F. is watching; He sees the slightest endeavor of the Craftsmen to
serve, and He will pour forth His wondrous power just in so far as the Brn.
become worthy of it.
ORTHODOXY AND HERESY
Another point which arises in connection
with the transmission of Masonic degrees will be developed more fully as we
proceed. We must realize that in Masonic ritual it is not a case of one
orthodoxy, and a number of heresies and schisms; it is rather that there are as
many lines of tradition in form as there are types of succession in inner
power. The Mysteries worked in the different countries of the ancient world
varied considerably in the details of their form and legend, and vestiges of
these differences remain in the various workings now in use among us. Many
equally valid streams of tradition have crossed and recrossed one another
throughout the ages, and have influenced each other to a greater or less
degree. The seating of the principal officers in a Craft Lodge, for instance,
differs in English and Continental Masonry. English Masonry follows the old
Egyptian method of arranging them, while Continental Masonry follows the
Chaldaean plan and seats them in an isosceles triangle.
The powers of the succession of I.M.s in
these two systems are in essence the same, but since in the Continental Lodges
the ceremony of Installation is reduced to the merest vestige, only the minimum
of power necessary for the actual transmission of the degrees is conferred, and
very much less is done for the R.W.M. than under the English plan. But this is
a question of imperfection of form rather than of absence of power. The
spiritual powers behind Masonry work through the different forms according to
the value of the form and the will of the H.O.A.T.F. behind, who is the only
judge of the much-argued difference between genuine and spurious Masonry. In
the light of this view of the Masonic succession, it will be seen that genuine
rites are those which possess and transmit spiritual power, whereas
spurious Masonry is the working of a
form from which for one reason or another the life has been withdrawn, or to
which it has never been linked.
In the following chapters I shall endeavour
to trace the descent of the Masonic tradition from the Egyptian Mysteries to
the present day, not in any way attempting to delineate each separate link in
the chain of succession, for that would be the work of a life-time and would
not be of any fuller value to the student, but touching rather upon important
periods of Masonic history, as revealed by the inner sight, and confirmed in
the writings of Masonic scholars.
2 The Egyptian Mysteries
THE MESSAGE OF THE WORLD-TEACHER
In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I have described
to some extent the form and meaning of Freemasonry as I knew it in Egypt about
six thousand years ago. That form was largely due to the birth of the World
Teacher among the Egyptian people about 40,000 B.C. when He taught them the
doctrine of the Hidden Light. It may be well to sketch briefly the history of
the nation from that period up to 13,500 B.C., where I took it up in the
previous book.
The authentic history of Egypt, as
determined by modern scholars, begins with the First Dynasty, which was founded
by Mena or Manu about 5,000 B.C. - the dates are variously given. It is
considered that the pyramids of Gizeh, which played so great a part in the
hidden side of Egyptian worship, were built by the Kings of the Fourth Dynasty,
Khufu (Cheops), Khafra (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus), during the fourth
millennium B.C. But the inner history of Egypt and its pyramids extends back
further than this, into ages upon which even tradition is almost silent,
although some echoes of the reigns of the Divine Kings of the Atlantean
Dynasties, who ruled Egypt for many thousands of years, appear in the Egyptian
and Greek myths of the gods and demigods who are said to have reigned before
the coming of Manu.
According to Manetho, the Egyptian historian
of the Ptolemaic period, whose works are now lost (except for certain fragments
preserved in quotations), the gods and demigods reigned for 12,843 years. After
these came the Nekyes or Manes, who are said to have reigned for 5,813 years;
and some of these may perhaps be identified with the Shemsu Heru, or Followers
of Horus, who are frequently mentioned in Egyptian texts.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis
Budge. The Nile, p. .) Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt about 57 B.C. ,
tells us that it was traditionally believed that the gods and heroes had
reigned over Egypt for a little less than eighteen thousand years before the
time of Mena.* (*Diod. Sic., Hist., Bk. I., xliv.) The book Man: Whence, How
and Whither carries us much further into the past, and gives us the following
facts.
The Atlantean conquest of Egypt took place
over one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, and the first great Egyptian
empire lasted until the catastrophe of 75,025 B.C., when the two great islands Ruta
and Daitya were whelmed beneath the ocean, and only the island of Poseidonis
remained.* (*Op. cit., pp. 119 and 132, and The Story of Atlantis, by Scott
Elliott.) It was during the dominance of that empire that the three pyramids
were built in accordance with the astronomical and mathematical lore of the
Atlantean priests;* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, p. .) and it is to
this age also that we look for the origin of those Mysteries which have been
handed down to us in the ceremonies of Freemasonry. Even then the ceremonies
were ancient, and we must search a still more remote past for their ultimate
source. In the great catastrophe of 75,025 B.C. the whole land of Egypt was
flooded, and nothing remained of all its glory save the three pyramids rising
above the waters.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, pp. 242 and .) After this,
when the swamps had become habitable, there came a negroid domination; and then
the land was again colonized by the Atlanteans, who restored the splendour of
the Egyptian temples and established once more the hidden Mysteries which had
been celebrated in the great pyramid. This empire lasted up to the time of the
Aryanization of Egypt in 13,500 B.C.; it was ruled by a great dynasty of divine
kings, among whom were many of the heroes whom Greece later regarded as
demigods, such as Herakles of the twelve labours, whose tradition was handed on
to classical times.
It was to this people about 40,000 B.C. that
the World Teacher came forth from the White Lodge, bearing the name of Tehuti
or Thoth, called later by the Greeks Hermes; He founded the outer cult of the
Egyptian Gods and restored the Mysteries to the splendour of byegone days.
He came to teach the great doctrine of the
'Inner Light' to the priests of the Temples, to the powerful sacerdotal
hierarchy of Egypt, headed by its Pharaoh. In the inner court of the chief
Temple He taught them of 'the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into
the world' - phrase of His that was handed down through the ages, and was echoed
in the fourth Gospel in its early Egyptian-coloured words. He taught them that
the Light was universal, and that that Light, which was God, dwelt in the heart
of every man: "I am that Light," He bade them repeat, "That
Light am I". "That Light," He said, "is the true man,
although men may not recognize it, although they neglect it. Osiris is Light;
He came forth from the Light; He dwells in the Light; He is the Light. The
Light is hidden everywhere; it is in every rock and in every stone. When a man becomes
one with Osiris the Light, then he becomes one with the whole of which he was
part, and then he can see the Light in everyone, however thickly veiled,
pressed down, and shut away. All the rest is not; but the Light is. The Light
is the life of men. To every man - though there are glorious ceremonies, though
there are many duties for the priest to do, and many ways in which he should
help men - that Light is nearer than aught else, within his very heart. For
every man the Reality is nearer than any ceremony, for he has only to turn
inwards, and then will he see the Light. That is the object of every ceremony,
and ceremonies should not be done away with, for I come not to destroy but to
fulfil. When a man knows, he goes beyond the ceremony, he goes to Osiris, he
goes to the Light, the Light Amen-Ra, from which all came forth, to which all
shall return.
"Osiris is in the heavens, but Osiris
is also in the very heart of men. When Osiris in the heart knows Osiris in the
heavens, then man becomes God, and Osiris, once rent into fragments, again
becomes one. But see! Osiris the Divine Spirit, Isis, the Eternal Mother, give
life to Horus, who is Man, Man born of both, yet one with Osiris. Horus is
merged in Osiris, and Isis, who had been Matter, becomes through him the Queen
of Life and Wisdom. And Osiris, Isis, and Horus are all born of the Light.
"Two are the births of Horus. He is
born of Isis, the God born into humanity, taking flesh of the Mother Eternal,
Matter, the Ever-Virgin. He is born again into Osiris, redeeming his Mother
from her long search for the fragments of her husband scattered over the earth.
He is born into Osiris when Osiris in the heart sees Osiris in the heavens, and
knows that the twain are one."
So taught He, and the wise among the priests
were glad.
To Pharaoh, the
Monarch, He gave the motto: "Look for the Light"; He said that only
as a King saw the Light in the heart of each could he rule well. And to the
people He gave as a motto: "Thou art the Light. Let that Light
shine." And He set that motto round the pylon in a great Temple, running
up one pillar, and across the bar, and down the other pillar. And this was
inscribed over the doors of houses, and little models were made of the pylon on
which He had inscribed it, models in precious metals, and also in baked clay,
so that the poorest could buy little blue clay models, with brown veins running
through them, and glazed. Another favourite motto was: "Follow the
Light," and this became later: "Follow the King," and this
spread westward and became the motto of the Round Table. And the people learned
to say of their dead: "He has gone to the Light."
And the joyous civilization of Egypt grew
yet more joyous, because He had dwelt among them, the embodied Light. The
priests whom He had taught handed on His teachings and His secret instructions,
which they enshrined in their Mysteries, and students came from all nations to
learn the Wisdom of the Egyptians, and the fame of the Schools of Egypt went
abroad to all lands.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, pp. 284-.)
THE GODS OF EGYPT
It will be seen from the above that the
deities, or rather forms of Deity,
Osiris, Isis and Horus were already familiar to the people, and the World Teacher
made it part of His work to draw their attention to the true meaning of the
three Persons. At what time knowledge of these three Aspects of God was
introduced into the land we do not know, but at the date of our experience they
had their places in the symbology of the Mysteries.
ISIS AND OSIRIS
Isis, to whom the Lesser Mysteries were
ascribed, was not only the universal feminine principle expressed in nature,
but also a real and very lofty Being, just as the Christ is the universal Life,
the Second Logos, and also a high Official of the Occult Hierarchy. She by
virtue of her high development and office was able to represent the Feminine
Aspect of the Deity to man. Isis was the Mother of all that lives, and wisdom
and truth and power; upon her temple at Sais the inscription was written:
"I am that which is, which hath been, and which shall be; and no man has
ever lifted the veil that hides my Divinity from mortal eyes."*
(*Plutarch. Moralia; De Iside et Osiride.) The moon was her symbol; and the
influence which she outpoured upon her worshippers to the music of the shaken
sistrum was of brilliant blue light veined with delicate silver, as of shimmering
moonbeams, the very touch of which brought upliftment and ecstasy.
Osiris was the embodiment of God the Father
in a mighty Planetary Spirit. His symbol was the sun, and the influence which
He outpoured was a dazzling glory of light shot through with gold, like the
rays of the sun caught upon the surface of a lake. The influence of Horus, who
represented the divine Child, was the glowing rose and gold of the eternal love
which is perfect wisdom.
ANIMAL DEITIES
The Egyptians also followed the ancient
practice of regarding certain animals as mirroring various aspects of the divine,
because of their outstanding qualities. Thus they took the intelligence of the
ape, the clear-sightedness of the hawk, the strength of the bull, and so on,
and attributed the quality to some particular aspect of the Deity. They
carefully bred certain animals as perfect representatives of their species, and
kept them apart as symbols of those divine qualities. Such were the Apis bulls,
and the cats of Bast or Pasht. These animals were regarded not exactly as
sacred, but as objectified examples of the qualities. In the beginning the
creature was a mere symbol, but in later days the Egyptians had the idea that
those which had been especially set apart came to be linked with the godhead,
and so were to some extent a manifestation of the deity. They then embalmed the
animals and laid up the mummies in their temples, with the intention of preserving
the divine influence.
THE PRACTICE OF EMBALMING
70 In the same way the Pharaoh was embalmed with
the idea that his power, his connection with the deity (which was a very close
one as Pharaoh), would be preserved and would continue to radiate so long as
the body remained. This resembled the later custom of preserving the relics of
a saint. The strong love of the Egyptians for their country provided another
reason for embalming their dead; they hoped to preserve a definite link on the
physical plane which would operate to draw them back to rebirth among their own
people. That it did so operate in many cases seems to have been a fact,
although the will of the re-incarnating ego would doubtless have been
sufficient to achieve the same result. The custom was not altogether a good
one, because if the body of a man of evil life is embalmed, a good deal of
additional power is thereby left to him after death; he may more easily
materialize and operate on the physical plane in undesirable ways. It is on the
whole fortunate that the practice has not persisted.
OTHER DEITIES
Many other deities were reverenced in
ancient Egypt, in much the same way as numerous gods are adored to-day in
India; and in every case the devotion addressed to the Supreme obtained its
response through the particular channel
chosen by the worshipper. Great Angels of different Orders and Rays were
appointed to represent these various qualities of the Deity, and these were
worshipped as gods in the older faiths. But so close is the union in these
cases that devotion rendered to one of these was at the same time given to God
Himself. Shri Krishna, speaking as the Supreme in the Bhagavad Gita says:
"Even those who worship other Gods with devotion, full of faith - they
also worship Me."* (*Op. cit., ix, .)
Wherever devotion is offered through a
particular form, we may be sure that there is an Intelligence behind that form
who acts as a mediator or channel between the suppliant and the Deity behind.
Hathor, for instance, was the goddess of love and beauty, while as we have
seen, Isis was the Queen of Truth and the Mother of all things; yet both were
representatives of the feminine aspect of the Deity, as also was Nephthys. Ptah
was the Master Architect of the Universe, the Holy Spirit who is the Creative
Fire of God; He was the celestial worker in metals, and the chief smelter, caster
and sculptor of the Gods, the skilful Craftsman by whom the design for every
part of the framework of the world was made.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The
Papyrus of Ani, p. 170.)
THE BROTHERS OF HORUS
Among the other deities who were especially
connected with the Mysteries, who still play a most important part in the inner
working of our Masonic ceremonies to-day, are to be found the four children or
brothers of Horus, who are depicted in the well-known judgment scene as
standing on a lotus before the throne of Osiris. These represent the Gods of
the four quarters, or of the cardinal points, who support the canopy of heaven
at its four corners. The God of the north was Hapi, who bore the head of an
ape; the God of the east was Tuamutef, who bore the head of a jackal; Amset or
Kestha ruled the south, and had the head of a man; while the west was governed
by Qebsennuf, whose head was that of a hawk.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The
Nile, p. 267, Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, p. 10.)
The
truth underlying these strange deities is of the deepest interest when examined
by the inner sight, for these four are the same as the four Devarajas of India
- the Kings of the elements, earth, air, fire and water, who likewise preside
over the cardinal points. They correspond also with the cherubim described by
Ezekiel, and with the four beasts of the Revelation. S. John says of them:
And in the midst of the throne, and round
about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the
first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third
beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And
the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of
eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was and is, and is to come.* (*Rev., iv, 6-.)
Ezekiel describes them a little differently:
Their wings were joined one to another; they
turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the
likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a
lion on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side;
they four also had the face of an eagle. As for the likeness of the living
creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the
appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the
fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. Now as I beheld the
living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with
his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the
colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their
work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went
upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings,
they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes
round about them four.* (*Ezekiel, I, 9, 10, 13, 15-.)
80 This symbolism is strange; but it has its
meaning, and any investigator who has ever had the privilege of seeing the
mighty Four will at once recognize that S. John and the prophet Ezekiel had
seen them too, however inadequate are their descriptions. The beast with the
face of a man stands for the physical body (earth); the ox or the bull (as in
the case of the bull of Mithra and the Apis bull) typifies the emotional or
astral body (water); the lion symbolizes the will or the mental aspect (air);
and the soaring eagle is taken to indicate the spiritual side of man's nature
(fire). The Egyptian forms were a little different; but the same four elements
and their Rulers are depicted in that ancient symbolism, which indeed we find
in all religions. There is a four-faced Brahma; there is the fourfold Jupiter,
who is aerial, fulgurant, marine and terrestrial. And that leads us back to the
reality behind all these symbols, the four great Angel-Rulers of the elements,
the administrators of the great law, who are the gods or leaders of the
hierarchies of Angels of earth, water, air and fire. Those are the mystical
four; and they are full of eyes within, because they are the scribes, the
recorders, the agents of the Lipika: they watch all that happens, all that is
done, all that is written or spoken or thought in all the worlds.
In The Light of Asia they are described as
the Rulers of the four points of the compass:
. the four Regents of the Earth, come down
From Mount Sumeru - they who write men's
deeds
On brazen plates - the Angel of the East,
Whose hosts are clad in silver robes, and
bear
Targets of pearl: the Angel of the South,
Whose horsemen, the Kumbhandas, ride blue
steeds,
With sapphire shields: the Angel of the
West,
By Nagas followed, riding steeds blood-red,
90 With coral shields: the Angel of the North,
Environed by his Yakshas, all in gold,
On yellow horses, bearing shields of gold.
This is a poetical Oriental description; yet
it has a definite foundation. The form in which it is cast is obviously merely
traditional; but always there is a fact behind. Those Great Ones are surrounded
by, and in constant communication with, vast hosts of Angels and assistants,
but these do not take the form of a guard of horsemen; yet the colours of the
respective hosts are correctly given. These four most strange and wondrous
beings are not exactly Angels, in the ordinary sense of the word, though they
are often called so; under them are hierarchies of Angels who carry out their
will in accordance with the Law, for they direct the whole tremendous machinery
of divine justice and in their hands is the working of the law of karma. They
are sometimes spoken of as the overseers who guard the gates and test the
material for the building of the holy temple.
CONSECRATION
These beings are very closely connected with
the inner working of the Mysteries, and therefore of Masonry which is derived
therefrom. They represent the great building forces of the universe, the
constructive powers of nature; and since in our Lodges we are engaged in
building a universe in miniature, it is these who are invoked to assist us in
our work. This invocation is performed at the consecration of every Lodge,
however little the modern consecrating officer may know what he is really doing
when he pours forth the traditional offerings of corn, wine, oil and salt,
symbols which they themselves have chosen from time immemorial to represent
their especial powers. This ancient piece of ritual, when performed by an I.M.
duly commissioned to consecrate a Lodge, produces stupendous results in the
inner worlds; for it amounts to a call made to the planetary spirits at the
head of the four lines to recognize the new Lodge and to dedicate it to the
service of T.G.A.O.T.U.
The call is answered. As the corn is
scattered in the north, a great golden Angel of earth descends in majesty,
followed by his Angel-train, some of whom are left behind to be the channels of
the power of his hierarchy whenever the Lodge is opened in due and ancient
form. The pouring of wine in the south invokes a great blue Angel of water,
also attended by other Angels less great than he; similarly the offering of
oil in the west calls upon a mighty crimson Angel of fire, who pours down into
the Lodge the splendid rhythmic Power of that 'most terrible and lovely' of the
elements. As the salt is strewn in the east, an Angel of the air flashes down
from on high, he and his attendants being of a wonderful silver hue shot
through with mother-of-pearl. These four Great Ones, representing the four gods
of the elements, the four children or brothers of Horus, solemnly consecrate
the Lodge, binding the Brn. into a close unity in the inner worlds and linking
with them Angels of their orders, who will act as their representatives at each
Lodge meeting. The tradition of these four passed down to the mediaeval
operative Craftsmen and became mingled with that of the four Crowned Martyrs
who are the patron-saints of the Craft.
Let me warn my Brn. who may be called upon
to act as consecrating officers to see that it is corn which is supplied to
them for the ceremony - wheat, and not maize. Once, through an oversight, maize
(which in America is called "Indian corn") was given to me on such an
occasion, and as there was no time to send for wheat I used what was offered.
The result was unanticipated, for there came a cloud of nature-spirits of a
totally different type, who knew nothing whatever of the work expected of them,
and were entirely unsuited for it. I had to repeat that part of the
consecration afterwards with the proper material.
THE PURPOSE OF THE MYSTERIES
In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I have already
written briefly of the purpose of the Mysteries.* (*Op. cit., p. .) I said
there:
The Mysteries were
great public institutions, supported by the State, centres of national and
religious life to which people of the better classes flocked in thousands; and
they did their work exceedingly well, for one who had passed through their
degrees - a process of many years - thereby became what we should now call a
highly-educated and cultured man or woman, with, in addition to his knowledge
of this world, a vivid realization of the future after death, of man's place in the scheme of
things, and therefore of what was really worth doing and living for.
It should not be
thought therefore that the Mysteries were secret societies, with all their
affairs deliberately concealed from the ordinary public. It will be seen
presently that thousands of people entered the ordinary degrees of Isis. The
teaching and the training of the inner and higher degrees (as we may call them)
certainly were concealed from those whom they did not concern, that is to say
from those who were not sufficiently evolved to be fit to take part in them,
but only as in a modern University the classes in which, let us say, conic sections
are taught are closed to children who are as yet learning simple arithmetic.
Everyone in Egypt
knew that there were Mysteries, and practically everyone knew that they were
largely concerned with the life after death and the preparation for it. This
teaching was, however, given to the initiates of the Mysteries under solemn and
binding pledges of secrecy; and the results of certain lines of action in the
world after death were shown in elaborate detail. The essential outline of this
secret instruction was embodied in the rituals of Initiation, Passing, and Raising,
and it is these rituals which have in part descended to us in the ceremonies of
Freemasonry, which are still protected by oaths of secrecy as in the old days.
Every great nation
has had its Mysteries, through which the great Teachers of mankind sought to
instruct the people in matters of importance, inspired by the Great White
Lodge which stands behind all religions alike. Among these the Egyptian
Mysteries were preeminent among the western peoples of the ancient world, not
only because of their immemorial age, but because of the fact that Egypt was
one of the auxiliary centres of the White Lodge. The Great White Brotherhood
has its headquarters in Central Asia, but it has at various times and for
various purposes maintained subsidiary Lodges in different parts of the world.
The presence of
this secret centre belonging to the White Brotherhood had much to do with
Egypt's greatness throughout the ages; although the fact of its existence was
not known to the outer world, that Lodge of the true Mysteries supervised the
whole scheme of Egyptian initiation, and made it the prototype of the Mysteries
of all the nations around. Egypt was thus the centre of spiritual illumination
for the entire western world, and all those who sought the Great Initiations
were attracted to it; and it is this fact which explains the reverence paid to
the Egyptian Mysteries by learned Greeks in later times.
The principal
centre for the public work of these Mysteries was the great pyramid, called in
ancient Egypt Khut, "The Light". It was built on the most exact
astronomical and mathematical calculations, and provided a veritable key in
stone to the enigmas of the universe.* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry,
pp. 228-30.)
The initiates of
the Egyptian Mysteries were symbolically engaged in the building of the
pyramid, just as in our modern Masonry we are engaged in erecting the temple of
King Solomon, both structures being intended to be emblematical of the building
processes of nature. In the halls below the pyramid - those underground
chambers which were mentioned by
Herodotus as being contained in an island, fed by a channel from the Nile,*
(*Her. Book ii, .) - certain of the ceremonies of the Mysteries were held.
These and other halls in and near the great pyramid are still unknown to the
explorer, though they may yet be opened "by the proper steps" - the
secret doors turning upon pivots according to an elaborate system of counterpoises, and being
set in motion by treading upon certain spots in the floor in a certain order.
The ceremonies of
the Mysteries were also intended to portray the higher evolution of man, his
return to the divine source whence he came, through the development of the
higher part of his nature, which is not merely consequent upon practices of meditation
and ceremonial, but even more upon the living out of the ethical precepts which
were taught. Many people of our day imagine that we know ethical truths without
being taught them, but that is not so; they seem to us quite natural now, but
long ago they were discoveries or revelations somewhat analogous to the steps
of advancement in material science and invention.
Each degree of the
Mysteries was designed to reflect one or other of the great Initiations of the
White Lodge, so that the initiates of this lower level might prepare themselves
ultimately to enter the Path of Holiness and so strive after the fullness of
union with Osiris, the Hidden Light. When we come to consider these degrees we
shall see how this teaching was graded, and how those initiates who were
properly prepared were enabled to reach the true knowledge which they were
seeking. The whole scheme of initiation provided a complete chart of man's
spiritual evolution, and it was for the individual candidate to endeavour to
put the teachings into practice and to make real in his own consciousness that
which was symbolized in the ritual.
THE DEGREES OF THE
MYSTERIES
1The Mysteries of
Egypt were, as ever, divided into two main sections, the Lesser and the
Greater. The Lesser Mysteries are typified to some extent by what we now know
as the First Degree of Craft Masonry, while the Greater Mysteries were
analogous to what we now call the Second and Third Degrees. Beyond these there
was a ceremony corresponding to the degree of I.M., in which the succession of
powers was guarded and transmitted from age to age; and still further in
reserve there were the yet greater spiritual powers that are indicated, and
even given to some extent, in the higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. Behind the whole system of Masonic initiation was (and is) the
White Lodge itself, conferring the five great Initiations which lead to human
perfection and full union with God.
THE MYSTERIES OF
ISIS
In the Lesser
Mysteries the initiate was taught what lies on the other side of death, and the
ceremony of initiation was a symbolical map of that intermediate world which is
sometimes called the astral plane. Probably Apuleius refers to this degree when
he describes the Mysteries of Isis as celebrated in Greece during the second
century A. D., although he wrote at a time when they had fallen into considerable
decay. After mentioning various purifications through which he passed, he goes
on to relate something of what took place at his initiation:
Then, behold, the
day approached when as the sacrifice of dedication should be done; and when the
sun declined and evening came, there arrived on every coast a great multitude
of priests, who according to their ancient order offered me many presents and
gifts. Then was all the laity and profane people commanded to depart, and when
they had put on my back a new linen robe, the priest took my hand and brought
me to the most secret and sacred place of the temple. Thou wouldest
peradventure demand, thou studious reader, what was said and done there: verily
I would tell thee if it were lawful for me to tell, thou wouldst know if it
were convenient for thee to hear; but both thy ears and my tongue should incur
the like pain of rash curiosity. Howbeit I will not long torment thy mind,
which peradventure is somewhat religious and given to some devotion; listen
therefore, and believe it to be true. Thou shalt understand that I approached
near unto hell, even to the gates of Proserpine, and after that I was ravished
throughout all the elements, I returned to my proper place: about midnight I
saw the sun brightly shine, I saw likewise the gods celestial and the gods
infernal, before whom I presented myself and worshipped them. Behold now have I
told thee, which although thou hast heard, yet it is necessary that thou
conceal it; wherefore this only will I tell, which may be declared without
offence for the understanding of the profane.
When morning came
and that the solemnities were finished, I came forth sanctified with twelve
stoles and in a religious habit, whereof I am not forbidden to speak,
considering that many persons saw me at that time. There I was commanded to
stand upon a pulpit of wood which stood in the middle of the temple, before the
figure and remembrance of the goddess; my vestment was of fine linen, covered
and embroidered with flowers; I had a precious cope upon my shoulders, hanging down behind me to
the ground, whereon were beasts wrought of divers colours, as Indian dragons,
and Hyperborean griffins, whom in form of birds the other part of the world
doth engender: the priests commonly call such a habit an Olympian stole. In my
right hand I carried a lighted torch, and a garland of flowers was upon my
head, with white palm-leaves sprouting out on every side like rays; thus I was
adorned like unto the sun, and made in fashion of an image, when the curtains
were drawn aside and all the people compassed about to behold me. Then they
began to solemnize the feast, the nativity of my holy order, with sumptuous
banquets and pleasant meats: the third day was likewise celebrate with like
ceremonies, with a religious dinner, and with all the consummation of the adept
order.* (*Apul. Met, xi, 23, . tr. William Adlington A.D. .)
It is also
reported that during the ceremony Isis said:
I am Nature - the
parent of all things, the sovereign of the elements, the primary progeny of
time.
THE PRELIMINARY
TRIALS
The secrets
communicated in the Mysteries have been well and loyally kept, and no details
about them are available, though we occasionally find guarded hints which give
us a slight idea of their character. There is a picturesque account of the
preparation for them given in Mackey's
Lexicon of Freemasonry which, although it does not appear to be substantiated
by the records preserved in Greek and Latin authors, nevertheless contains some
fragments of truth. I take the liberty to epitomize it as follows:
For some days
before his initiation the candidate was expected to preserve perfect chastity,
to confine himself to a light diet from which all animal food was excluded, and
to purify himself by repeated ceremonial ablutions. When the time came he was
conducted at midnight to the mouth of a low gallery along which he had to crawl
on his hands and knees. Presently he came to the opening of a well which the
guide directed him to descend. If he showed the slightest hesitation he was
reconducted to the outer world, never again to become a candidate for
initiation; if however he attempted to descend, the conductor pointed out to
him a concealed ladder which enabled him to climb down safely. They then
entered a narrow and winding gallery at the entrance of which was this
inscription: "The mortal who shall travel over this road without
hesitating or looking behind shall be purified by fire, by water, and by air,
and if he can surmount the fear of death he shall emerge from the bosom of the
earth; he shall revisit the light and claim the right of preparing his soul for
the reception of the Mysteries of the great Goddess Isis."
120The conductor
now left the aspirant, warning him that many dangers surrounded and awaited
him, and exhorting him to continue unshaken. Heavy doors closed behind him,
rendering his return impossible. Presently he entered a spacious hall filled
with flames through which he had to rush with the greatest speed. Even when he
had passed through this fiery furnace he came to another hall the floor of
which was covered with a huge network of red-hot iron bars with very narrow
interspaces between them. Having surmounted this difficulty he reached a wide
and rapid channel across which he had to swim. On the other side he found a
narrow landing place bounded by two high walls of brass, in each of which was
an immense wheel of the same metal, and beyond them was an ivory door. He found
no means of opening this door, but presently discovered two large rings, which
he seized; but the only result was to set the brazen wheels revolving with a
stunning noise and to cause the platform upon which he stood to sink from
beneath him, so that he remained suspended by the rings over an apparently
fathomless abyss, from which issued a cold wind which blew out the tiny flame
of his lamp and left him in profound darkness. He was left hanging there for a
short time, but soon the noise ceased, the platform returned to its former
position and the ivory door opened itself. Through it he then entered a
brilliantly lighted apartment in which he found a number of the priests of Isis
dressed in the mystic insignia of their offices, who welcomed and congratulated
him. On the walls he saw the various symbols of the Egyptian Mysteries, the
signification of which was by degrees explained to him.
One cannot
guarantee all the details of such an account, but it is true that severe tests
more or less of the nature described were applied to candidates for the inner
Mysteries. None of these trials were imposed on the man who wished to take
merely the ordinary course of intensive culture; he might pass through the
Lesser and the Greater without encountering anything more formidable than hard
and long-continued study; and he would never even know that there was another
stage (or rather a number of stages) lying altogether beyond those, in which he
would have to face astral dangers of so serious a nature that it was considered
necessary first to submit the candidate to severe trials of his courage and
self-command.
In the early days
of the Mysteries, living pictures were materialized by the priests before the
eyes of the candidate, so that he was enabled to see for himself what lay on
the other side of death. In later days, when there was less knowledge among the
hierophants, elaborate mechanical devices were shown to him, representing the
realities of the astral world as far as such resources would allow. Still
later, the characteristic points of these pictures were reproduced in a system
of symbolic ceremonies, the main outline of which has come down to us today in the initiation ceremony of
Masonry, although in some Obediences only a mere vestige of the original
procedure remains.
THE MYSTERY
LANGUAGE
Besides the
teaching upon the life after death - which was elaborated by countless stories
of imaginary individuals, showing the results in the astral plane after death
of certain courses of action during life - a fine course of education was also
given to the initiates of the First degree, embracing what Masons term the
seven liberal arts and sciences - grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic,
geometry, music and astronomy. By grammar the Egyptians meant the sacred
hieroglyphic writing of the priests, which was taught to all the initiates of
the Mysteries, but it also signified a kind of secret language, a way of
speaking peculiar to the priesthood. In the secret language of the Mysteries it
was not so much that different words were used, as that the familiar words had
a different meaning. Those who have studied the translations of Egyptian texts
will have noticed how widely these vary in the versions of the different
scholars; I have sometimes wondered whether this is in any way due to that
system of double meanings.
In ancient Egypt
we were able to talk about the secrets of the inner life before crowds of
people without letting them know what we meant; and we had quite a large
vocabulary of such significant words, so that an entire conversation could be
conducted seemingly about ordinary every-day affairs, but in reality upon the
secrets of the Mysteries. Much instruction was given in this way; a lecture or
address might be delivered publicly by one of the priests, bearing two entirely
distinct meanings - the one ethical and intended for the helping of people who
were not initiated, and the other esoteric, for the students of the Mysteries.
The legend that Masonry possesses a universal language known only to the Brn.
may be an echo of tradition about this ancient and secret tongue.
This secret tongue
of the Initiates was also used in inscriptions, and in the hieroglyphic
wall-paintings and papyri. Many of the inscriptions, telling of the victories
of some great Pharaoh, could be read in a hidden sense, and they then conveyed
spiritual instruction to those who had learnt the real meaning. This is
certainly true of The Book of the Dead, which when translated into English by
modern scholars seems often unintelligible and even grotesque. Yet in the
interpretation of it taught in the Mysteries those same texts were full of
inner illumination and gave much information about the realities of life and
death.
It is perhaps
necessary to repeat that in all this there was no desire on the part of the
priests to mislead the people; their idea was simply to give instruction graded
to suit the needs of the hearer and to guard important secrets from those who
were not prepared to receive them. It was for the same reason that the interior
arrangements of the great pyramid were confused. Some of the passages were not
used at all in the scheme of initiation, the real passage having been
obtainable in quite another way. This policy was dictated by wisdom. Would it
not be well if in these present days we could devise some means by which new
discoveries in science (which are now used for injury and destruction) could be
preserved solely for the use of people who would be certain to employ them for
the public good?
THE DUALITY OF
EACH DEGREE
The ordinary
Lesser Mysteries (which may be called the First Degree) were open to
practically all who sought admission, provided
that they were of good life and reasonably intelligent, that they
were free, and that the t . o . g . r .
had been heard in their favour. In due
course they would pass on to the Greater Mysteries (the Second and Third
Degrees). But in each of these degrees there were also inner Mysteries, as I
have mentioned in connection with the preliminary trials.
130THE INNER
MYSTERIES OF ISIS
Within and behind
the outer Mysteries of Isis there were inner circles of students carefully
chosen by the priests, the very existence of which was kept utterly secret,
even from most of the initiates themselves. In these circles the practical
occult teaching was given that enabled the student to awaken and train his inner
faculties, so that he could study at first hand the conditions of the astral
plane, and thus know for himself what was but theoretical for the majority of
the Brn. It was in these circles only that the severe tests which have been partially
described were imposed upon the candidate, and he was definitely prepared by
individual and personal instruction for the greater and holier Mysteries which
lay behind the whole scheme of Egyptian initiation.
The candidate for
these inner tests was required, after a preliminary bath (from which was
derived the idea of Christian baptism), to attire himself in a white robe,
emblematic of the purity which was expected of him, before being brought before
a conclave of priest-initiates in a kind of vault or cavern. He was first
formally tested as to his development of the clairvoyant faculty which he had
been previously instructed how to awaken; for this purpose he had to read an
inscription upon a brazen shield, of which the blank side was presented to his
physical vision. Later he was left alone to keep a kind of vigil; certain
mantras, or words of power, had been taught to him, which were supposed to be
appropriate to control certain classes of entities; and during his vigil
various appearances were projected before him, some of them of a terrifying and
some of a seductive nature, so that it might be seen whether his courage and
coolness remained perfect. He drove away all these appearances in turn, each by
its own special sign and word; but at the end, all these combined bore down
upon him at once, and in this final effort he was instructed to use the
mightiest word of power, by which all possible evil could be vanquished. A
course of instruction along these lines was given to those candidates whom the
priests deemed suitable, so that at the end of their training they were
thoroughly versed in the knowledge of the astral world, and able to wield its
powers freely in waking consciousness.
THE MYSTERIES OF
SERAPIS
The Second Degree
of the Egyptian Mysteries corresponded somewhat closely with our degree of
F.C.; these were termed the Greater Mysteries or in later days the Mysteries of
Serapis. Apuleius gives us practically nothing in the way of description beyond
the bare fact that he had passed the degree. The instruction in the Greater
Mysteries was carried further and deeper as regards science and philosophy; a
more advanced course of intellectual training was set before the students,
which one might well call a research into "the more hidden paths of Nature
and Science". At the same time the study of the life after death was
extended to include the heaven-world, the m . c . into which all must go to
receive their wages for the good deeds done on earth; much of this deeper
knowledge of the mental plane was taught in the Greater Mysteries, in the same
manner as the facts of the astral life had been taught in the First Degree -
namely, by representation and drama. The purpose of the Mysteries of Serapis in
the life of the individual initiate was the control of the mind* (*See The
Hidden Life in Freemasonry, Ch. vii.) and the training of the mental body; and
the sacramental powers invoked by the ceremonial had as their object the
quickening of this mental development.
THE INNER DEGREE
OF SERAPIS
Behind the outer
mysteries in this degree there were also secret circles, quite unknown to those
who had not been through the inner work of the First Degree; in these practical
instruction was given on the development of the mental body, and the method of
awakening accurate sight on the mental plane, so that the student was enabled
to verify the teaching of the priests for himself.
In connection with
this degree it may be of interest to mention that in the temple of Philae the
body of Osiris is represented with stalks of corn springing from it which a
priest waters from a vessel which he holds in his hand. An inscription sets
forth that "this is the form of Him whom we may not name, Osiris of the
Mysteries, who sprang from the returning waters"* (*Cheetham, The
Mysteries, Pagan and Christian, p. .) - this symbolism referring among other
things to the quickening of the inner life in response to the power poured down
from on high. The s . n of the degree is often found in Egyptian paintings, and
is exactly the same as is in use among Craftsmen to-day. As in the First
Degree, an average of seven years was also spent in the Mysteries of Serapis,
at the end of which candidates who had passed a far more searching examination,
and had satisfied the Hierophants that they were ready for further teaching,
were eligible for the Third Degree.
THE MYSTERIES OF
OSIRIS
The Third Degree
was called in Egypt the Mysteries of Osiris; it corresponds to the Degree of
M.M. in our modern Craft system. Apuleius describes Osiris as: "The more
powerful God of the great Gods, the highest of the greater, the greatest of the
highest, and the ruler of the greatest."* (*Apul. Met. Bk. xi, 30.) In the
Egyptian ritual, which was much more complete and impressive than the traditional
history preserved in modern Masonry, the candidate had to pass through a
symbolical representation of the suffering, death and rising again of Osiris,
which included his experiences between death and resurrection, when he entered
the world of Amenta, and became the judge of the dead, who should decide for
each soul what measure of felicity was due to him, and turn back to earthly
incarnation those who needed further human
development. The legend of the death and resurrection of Osiris was well
known to all the people of Egypt, both initiates and profane, and there were
great public ceremonies, corresponding to those of our Good Friday and Easter
Day in Catholic countries, when these mystic events were celebrated with the
utmost splendour and with the heartfelt devotion of the people.
140The story of
Osiris is nowhere found in a connected form in Egyptian literature, but in
texts of all periods his life, sufferings, death and resurrection are accepted
as facts universally admitted.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Papyrus of Ani,
p. .) It would appear, however, that in ancient times it was not lawful to
speak of the tradition in any detail, at least to strangers, for Herodotus
says:
Also at Sais there
is the burial place of Him whom I account it not pious to name in connection
with such a matter, which is in the temple of Athene (Isis) behind the house of
the goddess, stretching along the whole wall of it; and in the sacred enclosure
stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is a lake adorned with an edging
of stone, and fairly made in a circle, being in size, as it seemed to me, equal
to that which is called the "Round Pool" in Delos. On this lake they
perform by night the show of His sufferings, and this the Egyptians call
Mysteries. Of these things I know more fully in detail how they take place, but
I shall leave this unspoken.* (*Her. Bk. ii, 170, .)
Diodorus writes to
the same effect:
In olden days
according to received tradition the priests kept the manner of the death of
Osiris as a secret; but in after times it came about through the indiscretion
of some that that which had been hidden in silence among the few, was noised
abroad among the many.* (*Diod, Sic. Hist. Bk. i, xxi.)
THE LEGEND OF
OSIRIS
The best exoteric
account of the legend is preserved for us by Plutarch in his treatise De Iside
et Osiride, written in Greek about the middle of the first century of our era,
a large portion of which is substantiated by the Egyptian hieroglyphic texts
which have been deciphered by scholars. It may be briefly summarized as
follows:
Osiris was a wise
king in Egypt who set himself to civilize the people and redeem them from their
former states of barbarism. He taught them the cultivation of the earth, gave
them a body of laws, and instructed them in the worship of the Gods. Having
made his own land prosperous, he set out in like manner to teach the other
nations of the world. During his absence the land of Egypt was so well ruled by
his wife, Isis, that his jealous brother Typhon
(Set), the personification of evil, as Osiris was the personification of
good, could do no harm to his kingdom; but on the return of Osiris to Egypt
Typhon made a conspiracy against him, persuading seventy-two other persons to
join him, together with a certain Queen of Ethiopia named Aso, who chanced to
be in Egypt at that time. He secretly measured the body of Osiris, and caused a
beautiful chest to be made of exactly the same size. This he brought into his
banqueting hall when Osiris was present as a guest, and promised, as it were in
pleasantry, to give it to anyone whose body it might be found to fit.
All those present
at the feast tried it, but since the box fitted none of them, Osiris at the
last laid himself down in it, whereupon the conspirators at once fastened down
the lid, securely sealing it with lead, and cast it into the Nile. The murder
of Osiris is said to have taken place on the seventeenth day of the month Athyr
(Hathor), when the sun was in Scorpio, Osiris being in the twenty-eighth year
either of his reign or his age. (It will be noted that this date marks the
beginning of winter, when the sun is mystically slain by the forces of
darkness; and it was on this date, corresponding to the festival of All Souls
in the Christian Church, that the land of Egypt mourned the death of Osiris, as
we mourn the death of the body of Jesus on Good Friday.)
News was brought
to Isis at Coptos of the tragedy which had occurred, whereupon she cut off a
lock of her hair, arrayed herself in mourning apparel, and went forth in search
of the body of Osiris. She learnt that the chest had been carried by the sea to
Byblos - not the Byblos of Syria, but the papyrus swamps of the delta* (*Sir E.
A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, p. 48 - footnote.) - and that it had been caught in a
tamarisk tree, which had so grown around the chest that nothing of it was to be
seen; and furthermore that the King of the country, amazed at its unusual size,
had cut the tree down and made of it a pillar to support the roof of his
palace. Isis went to Byblos and became nurse to one of the king's sons. Each
night she put the child in the fire to consume his mortal parts, changing
herself into a swallow, and bemoaning the loss of her husband. But the Queen
happened to see her child in flames and cried out in fear, thereby depriving
him of the immortality which would otherwise have been conferred upon him. The
goddess revealed herself and begged for the pillar which supported the roof.
This was granted to her, and she took the chest containing the body of Osiris
back to Egypt, hiding it in a secret place while she sought her son, Horus. But
Typhon, by an unlucky chance, found the chest while hunting in the light of the
moon, and recognizing the body as that of Osiris, tore it into fourteen pieces,
which he scattered up and down throughout the land. When Isis heard of this she
made a boat of papyrus, and set out to collect the fragments of the body.
Osiris returned from the other world and appeared to his son, Horus,
instructing him to do battle with Typhon; this battle lasted many days, and at
length Horus was victorious. Ultimately Osiris became the king of the
underworld and the judge of the dead.
This story, like
our own traditional history, has suffered from the materializing tendencies of
those who did not understand; for there is no clear mention of a resurrection
in the account given by Plutarch, but merely a vague return from the dead. This
represents, however, a very late version of the tradition, one which is
materialized and distorted almost beyond recognition; and in the Mysteries of
Osiris the legend was much more in accordance with the real facts of the
spiritual world. Even in the Egyptian inscriptions which have been deciphered
there are clear indications of a resurrection. The main outline of the true
legend was the death of Osiris at the hands of Set; the division of His body
into twice seven parts, representing the coming forth of the seven rays, or
types of manifestation, consequent upon the descent of the Logos into matter;
the search of Isis and the finding of the various portions of the body; their
reunion and the final raising of Osiris by the third of three successive
attempts to triumphant immortality and eternal resurrection.
150It was at this
stage also that the function of Osiris as the judge of the dead was studied;
and the vignette in the papyrus of Ani of the judgment of Osiris and the
weighing of the heart of Ani against the feather of truth represents the
judgment of the soul by the Lords of Karma. If the soul was utterly pure it was
allowed to pass onwards into immortality; if it was not "true of
voice" it was delivered over to the monster Amemit, "the
devourer," and was swallowed up again in the cycle of generation, to be
reborn on earth in another body. Although these symbols and legends were known
in the outer world, their true inner meaning was explained only to initiates of
the Third Degree.
THE MEANING OF THE
STORY
It is often
thought that the story of Osiris, like that of Mithra and the other sun-gods
(among whom some writers include even Christ Himself), is simply an apotheosis
of the processes of nature familiar to an agricultural people. Thus Plutarch
says that Osiris was also regarded as Nilus, the river Nile, and Isis as the
land of Egypt, periodically fertilized by his overflow.* (*Plutarch. Moralia;
De Iside et Osiride.) Astronomically, Osiris was the sun, Isis the moon, and
Typhon darkness and winter, who in his triumph destroyed the fertilizing powers
of the sun, preventing him from giving his life to the world. It is the
universal story of the sun-god
who, after a
struggle for existence and the development of his power in the early part of
the year, at last rises in triumph into the midheaven of his glory, and bestows
his life upon all creatures, ripening the corn and the grape, only to yield
once more to the advance of winter.
The sun in the
heavens, as the great life of the world, pursues this cycle of death and
resurrection; and the smaller life in the seed follows a similar process - it
sprouts and comes to fruit, which is garnered and sacrificed for the
nourishment of man and other creatures; but
just as Typhon did not utterly destroy Osiris, but left the fragments of
His body through which His life was afterwards renewed, so does man not eat all
the corn, but keeps some portion to be sown in the ground so that the processes
of life may recur. Man in his turn grows through the same cycle of changes,
through childhood, manhood and old age; and for him also there is no escape
from the sacrifice that characterizes all life, but he is reborn again and
again in his cycle of reincarnations.
The story of the
seed is thus that of the ordinary man, but the story of the sun is that of the
man who is becoming divine. In the Egyptian Mysteries they called him the
Osirified, and the Christian mystics spoke of him as becoming one with Christ,
as when S. Paul spoke to his followers as: "My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."* (*Gal., iv, .) It
is the voluntary nature of the divine sacrifice that distinguishes it from the
earthly sacrifices. Therefore the method of man's reaching divinity was always
proclaimed to be unselfishness and self-sacrifice for the sake of others; and
the entire story of Christ and of Osiris is but an epitome and example of how
that sacrifice may be expressed on earth in human life, as it is in the
heavens.
The researches of
the initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris were still further extended to include
man's true home, that higher section of the mental or heaven-world in which the
ego functions in his causal body; and at the same time the great ceremony of
raising was explained in many layers of interpretation as the descent of the
Logos into matter, His mystic death and burial, and His rising again to a
kingdom without end; and also as the personal descent of the soul into bodies,
his resurrection from the death-in-life of the lower worlds of form, and his
reincarnation upon earth once more.
The s . s of the
Mysteries of Osiris were much the same as we have to-day, though the s . of g .
and d . was that used in Scottish and American workings; but the words were
different, being much more positive in character. The f . p . o . f . were
identical with those we use now, and the g . or t . is likewise unchanged.
THE INNER
MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS
Within this degree
there was also an inner circle. The practical instruction was therein carried
into the higher part of the mental plane, so that the fully trained initiate in
the Mysteries of Osiris acquired full consciousness as an ego beyond the
limitations of the one personal life which is all that most people know.
THE OFFICE OF
MASTER
Beyond the Third
Degree there opened out several lines of progress in the Mysteries. There was
the work of holding office in the Lodges; that extended over many years, and
gave splendid training to those who undertook it. Each officer in a Lodge has
his own special work to do, his own
aspect of the Deity to manifest, his own sacramental power to transmit to the
Lodge of which he is a part; the course of training through successive offices
was and is therefore of inestimable value in acquiring an all-round development
of character. At the apex of the ancient Craft system, the degree of I.M.
existed, which gave a far fuller power than had been conferred even in the
Mysteries of Osiris, and enabled the Master to become a hierophant of the
Mysteries in his turn, able to instruct and advance his Brn. in the secret
wisdom of Egypt. In ordinary cases this splendid position was gained only late
in life, and by the time the Master had ruled his Lodge he had had a most
valuable training, that well might advance the course of his evolution more
than several ordinary lives.
The same
succession has been transmitted to us in Masonry to-day, and every I.M. is in
possession of the power of the Egyptian priests of old; though it is certainly
true that if he possessed also the knowledge of the Egyptian priests he could
make far better use of the power.
THE HIGHER GRADES
OF THE MYSTERIES
Beyond the
teaching and training which were given in the Mysteries, classified in the
three degrees which we have considered, the hierophants also made it their work
to instruct and guide aspirants who had proved themselves fit for still further
progress. We cannot say that there were in Egypt any organized degrees beyond
the third, that of Osiris; but there was individual teaching, which led to the
acquisition of still greater powers, and to the formation of links with beings
at still higher levels.
The higher degrees
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of our modern days (which were
established perhaps as late as the eighteenth century, when the Rite of
Perfection or of Heredom was formed) reflect to some extent these more advanced
lines of progress which existed in
Egypt. We may therefore in the following brief account of them classify them as
they are expressed in our Red, Black and White Freemasonry.
RED MASONRY IN THE
MYSTERIES
For such M.M.s as
were thought promising by the priests in charge (who were for the most part
members of the three Grand Lodges), what we now call Red Masonry existed, as
well as the teaching which is now included in our Royal Arch and kindred
degrees, culminating in the splendid quest of the Knights of the Rose-Croix for
the lost word, man's true divinity.
In the symbolic
teaching corresponding to our degree of the Holy Royal Arch the aspirant was
taught to clear away from the various levels of his consciousness all the veils
which yet obstructed his vision of reality, and then in the power of that
vision to recognize for himself the Hidden Light in every form, however deeply
it might be buried and concealed from the eyes of the flesh. This was typified
as a journey upwards, during which four veils were passed, and then by a search
downwards for a hidden vault, deeply buried in the earth, in which the Name of
God was concealed.
The central
purpose of this stage was an actual realization in consciousness that the many
are One. It was known to some extent among the uninitiated of the outer world
that all the strange deities of Egypt were in reality only manifestations of
One, but they did not in all probability realize the fact of unity with any
degree of clearness. In what corresponded to the Royal Arch in Egypt we found
for ourselves that God was immanent in all things and had descended into the
very lowest that the lowest might come into being. The powers conferred at this
stage enabled the candidate to realize this great truth to some extent; and a
certain expansion of consciousness was given to him which quickened the growth
of the intuitional principle within him, and so helped him to recognize the
divinity in others.
170There was a
considerable interval between this stage and the next, during which the
candidate was receiving instruction from the priests, and practising meditation
upon what he had learnt. Gradually he came to realize that, although he had
indeed found the divine Name, and had contacted for himself the Hidden Light of
God, there was a further search still before him, in which he would penetrate
deeper into the consciousness and being of the Deity. It was then that he began
his second great quest, which led up through a number of stages, during which
different attributes of the Deity were studied and to some extent realized,
until it culminated in the magnificent illumination given in what we now call
the Eighteenth Degree, that of the Sovereign Prince of the Rose-Croix of
Heredom. The candidate then found the divine Love reigning in his own heart and
in those of his Brn. He also learnt that God had descended and shared our lower
nature with us in order that we might ascend to share His true nature with Him.
That link is still
made for the Brn. of the Rose-Croix, and each should become a radiant centre of
that love wherever he goes, forgetting himself utterly in the service of
others. The splendid crimson Angels of the Rosy Cross, who now attend our
Sovereign Chapters and pour out through them the fullness of their love for the
helping of the world, were also known in ancient Egypt, and these were linked
with the Sovereign Princes in their higher principles, so that their seraphic
love also was at hand to be outpoured in blessing. To their guardianship the
candidate was entrusted, and he had to realize his unity with the Angels as
well as with his Brn.
At this stage the
intuition or buddhi in the candidate, that hidden wisdom which is Horus or the
Christ dwelling in man, was enormously quickened and aroused, so that the candidate
became to some extent a manifestation of that eternal love who in later ages
was called the Christ, and he was thereby enabled to work upon the emotional
nature, which is a partial reflection of it in the matter of the astral world,
so as to raise his power to love to greater heights than he could reach before.
He now became a veritable priest, able to call down and pour forth the divine
love for the helping of the world. A higher degree of this same most wonderful
power enabled the Bro. to confer this expansion of consciousness and transmit
these splendid links to others; and it is this power which is reserved in our
modern Sovereign Chapters to the M.WS. and those who have passed the Chair in
the Rose-Croix degree.
BLACK MASONRY IN
THE MYSTERIES
Few indeed of our
Egyptian Brn. appear to have passed beyond the Rose-Croix, for only the few
needed anything further than the splendid revelation of the indwelling Love of
God which they received in what we call the Eighteenth Degree. But for those
few who felt that there was yet more to learn of the nature of God, and who
eagerly wished to understand the meaning of evil and suffering and its relation
to the divine plan, the prototype of our Black Masonry existed, the teaching
and progress comprised in our degrees from the nineteenth to the thirtieth. This section of the Mysteries was
especially concerned with the working out of karma in its different aspects,
studied as a law of retribution, from one point of view dark and terrible. This
is the inner kernel of truth lying behind the vengeance-elements in the degree
of Knight K.H. The darker aspects of karma are largely connected with man's
ignorance of the nature of God and confusion with regard to the many forms in
which He reveals Himself, and thus the s . s of the 30° contain the heart of
its philosophy. That degree would not be fully and validly conferred unless
these s . s were duly communicated, since they express its inner meaning and
purpose.
In the ancient
instruction corresponding to this group of degrees it was taught that
whatsoever a man sowed, that also must he reap, and that if he sowed evil the
result would be suffering to himself. The karma of nations and races was also
studied, and the inner working of the law upon the different planes was
investigated by the inner sight, and shown to the student. The whole of what we
now call Black Masonry led up to an explanation of karma as divine justice,
this having been preserved for us in shadow in what is now the 31°, that of
the Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander, whose symbol is a pair of scales. In
Egypt this pair of scales was taken as an emblem of the perfect balance of
divine justice; the aspirant learnt that all the evil and horror associated
with the working out of karma was indeed based on perfect justice, although it
had appeared as evil to the lesser vision of the profane.
Thus the first
stage of the higher instruction, that of the Rose-Croix or Red Masonry, was
devoted to the knowledge of good, while the second stage, that of K.H. or Black
Masonry, was devoted to the knowledge of evil. Next, in the first steps of what
we call White Masonry, the crown of the whole glorious structure, the candidate
learnt to see the underlying justice of that eternal God, Amen-Ra, who stands
behind good and evil alike. In older days, before the kali yuga, in which evil
predominates over good, the Knights K.H. wore regalia of yellow instead of
black.
Our 30° links the
Knight K.H. to the ruling rather than the teaching branch of the Great
Hierarchy; he should become a radiant centre of perennial energy, which is
intended to give him strength to overcome evil and to make him a real power on
the side of good. The prevailing colour of the influence is an electric blue
(that of the First Ray, quite different from the blue of the symbolic or Blue
Lodges) edged with gold, including and yet not drowning the rose of the 18°.
Associated with the degree there are also great blue Angels of the First Ray
who lend their strength to the knight, somewhat as the crimson Angels assist
the Excellent and Perfect Brn. of the Rose-Croix. A higher level of the same
energy is transmitted in what to-day we should call the Chair of the Sovereign
Commander, who has the ability to pass on the sacramental grace of the degree
to others.
WHITE MASONRY IN
THE MYSTERIES
The highest and
last of the great sacramental powers of the Mysteries which have been
transmitted to us is that which is now conferred in the 33°, that of the
Sovereign Grand Inspector-General. In ancient Egypt, at the time when I knew
it, there were only three who held the equivalent of that supreme degree, the
Pharaoh and two others, who formed with him an inner triangle which was the
heart of the whole system of the Mysteries, and the channel to them of the
Hidden Light from the White Lodge behind. These three were all high Initiates
of the Great White Brotherhood, and the Pharaoh possessed an even higher level
of power than is usually given in the 33°, it being that of a Crowned and
Anointed Sovereign.
180The Brn. of
this high Order may be said to have passed on from a conception of the divine
justice to the certainty of knowledge and the fullness of the divine glory in
the Hidden Light. The 33° links the Sovereign Grand Inspector-General with the
Spiritual King of the World Himself - that Mighty Adept who stands at the head
of the Great White Lodge, and in whose strong hands lie the destinies of earth
and awakens the powers of the triple spirit as far as these can as yet be awakened.
The actual conferring of the degree was and is a very splendid experience when
seen with the inner sight; for the Hierophant of the Mysteries (who in these
modern days is the H.O.A.T.F.), stands above or beside the Initiator in that
extension of His consciousness which is called the Angel of the Presence. If
the recipient of the degree happens to be already an Initiate the Star (called
in Egypt the Star of Horus) which marks the approval of the One Initiator once
more flames out above him in all its glory; while in any case the two great
white Angels of the rite flash down in splendour from the heavenly places,
showing themselves as low as the etheric level that they may give their
blessing to the candidate.
The Hierophant
makes the actual links both with himself and with the reservoir of power set
apart for the work of the Masonic Brotherhood, and through himself with that
Mighty King whose representative He is, while the great white Angels of the
Order remain as the guardians of the Bro. throughout life. He on the right hand
has an aura of brilliant white light shot with gold, and represents Osiris, the
sun and life, the positive aspect of the Deity; she on the left has an aura of
similar light, veined with silver, and represents Isis, the moon and truth, the
negative or feminine aspect of the divine glory. Their power is stern and
splendid; and they give strength to act with decision, accuracy, courage and
perseverance on the physical plane. They
belong to the cosmic orders of Angels, those who are common to other solar
systems besides our own, and their permanent centres of consciousness are on
the intuitional plane, although their forms may always be seen hovering over
the head of the initiate of this degree
at the higher mental level. It is to be remembered that there is in
reality no sex among these great Angels, yet one of them is preponderatingly
masculine in appearance, and the other preponderatingly feminine.
When they think
fit, they materialize themselves mentally and astrally - as at the greater
ceremonies in Lodge - and they are always ready to give their blessing whenever
it is invoked. They are inseparably one with the Sovereign Grand
Inspector-General, linked to his higher self, never to desert him unless by
unworthiness he first deserts them and casts them off. The symbols of the sun
and moon are seen to-day on the gauntlets of the Sovereign Grand
Inspector-General, and they are intended to refer to these great Angelic powers
in the inner worlds.
The powers
associated with the 33° appear to have been slightly modified since those
ancient Egyptian times. The great white Angels seemed to be sterner and more
rhadamanthine in ancient Egypt; today those who belong to the degree are in
some ways gentler, though their power is no less splendid. This stage combined
the wonderful love of Horus the Son with the ineffable life and strength of
Osiris the divine Father, and Isis, the eternal Mother of the world; and this
union of love with strength is still its most prominent characteristic.
It confers upon
those who open themselves to its influence power similar to and only a little
way below that of the first great Initiation, and those who enter the 33°
should assuredly qualify themselves for that step before very long. Indeed, in
the great days of the Mysteries this stage was accessible only to Initiates,
and one feels that it ought only to be given to such now, just as it would seem
appropriate that the marvellous gift of the episcopate should be conferred only
upon members of the Great White Brotherhood. The power of the degree when in operation shows itself in an aura of
dazzling white and gold, enfolding within it the rose and blue of Rose-Croix
and K.H.; and in it also is manifested that peculiar shade of electric blue
which is the especial sign of the presence of the King. The Sovereign Grand
Inspector-General is the "Bishop" of Masonry, and if the life of the
degree is really lived he should be an ever-radiating centre of power, a
veritable sun of light and life and glory wherever he goes.
Such was the
highest and holiest of the sacramental powers conferred in the Mysteries of
ancient Egypt, such the highest degree known to us in Masonry to-day, bestowed
in its fullness upon but very few. The opportunity to draw down its sublime
glory is offered to all who receive the degree; how far it is taken and what
use is made of the power is in the hands of the Bro. alone, for to use the
power as it should be used needs high spiritual development and a life of
constant humility, watchfulness and service. If he calls upon it for the
service of others, it will flow through him mightily and sweetly for the
helping of the world. If he neglects the power, it will remain dormant and the
links unused - and Those behind will turn Their glance away from him to others
more worthy. The power of the 33° is a veritable ocean of glory and strength
and sweetness, for it is the power of the King Himself, the Lord who reigns on
earth as Vice-Regent of the Logos from eternity unto eternity.
THE STAGES OF THE
OCCULT PATH
Behind the whole
splendid scheme of the Egyptian Mysteries the Lodge of the Great White
Brotherhood in that country ever stood in silence and secrecy, guarding them
and using them as a channel of the Hidden Light - its very existence being unknown
to all who remained outside the inner circles. The Brotherhood selected for
initiation into its ranks only those who had fulfilled the ancient conditions
imposed upon all candidates for that high degree, the qualifications for which
were laid down in Part I of the manual of occult instruction now called Light
on the Path, which represents the teaching of the Egyptian Lodge. Candidates
were therefore generally chosen from among the Brn. who had received the higher
instruction, and had prepared themselves by many years of meditation, study and
service. Still, it sometimes happened that one might be chosen for Initiation
who had not passed through the outer steps of the Mysteries, but in previous
lives had prepared himself for it - for it is the ego who is initiated, not the
mere personality of the lower planes.
There have always
been five great Initiations, which in Christian teaching have been illustrated
by stages in the life of the Christ as related in the Gospels, which contain
elements derived from the teachings of the Egyptian Mysteries. The disciple
Jesus was an initiate of the Egyptian Lodge, and therefore much of the Egyptian
symbolism was adopted by His followers, and was later woven into the Gospel
story. In The Masters and the Path I have given an account of certain of the
ceremonies of Initiation used in the Great White Brotherhood at the present
day. The Egyptian rituals were in some respects slightly different from these
in form, although their essence was identically the same; for the Egyptian
Lodge possessed the tradition handed down from the initiates of Atlantis, which
was somewhat modified in later days, to suit the needs of the slowly-evolving
humanity of the Aryan race.
THE FIRST THREE
INITIATIONS
190The first of
the true inner Initiations was called the Birth of Horus, and corresponded in
that great religion to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem in the Christian
presentation. Horus was born of Isis, the Virgin-Mother; at his birth the Star
shone forth, and the Angelic hosts sang their song of triumph; he was adored by
shepherds and wise men, and saved from danger which threatened him from
without. In The Book of the Dead it is said: "I know the power of the
East, Horus of the Solar Mount, the Star of Dawn." The story of the Initiate
is the story of the Sun-God, the universal Christ who is born into the heart of
man, and His mystic birth is the purpose of the First Great Initiation.
If the candidate
had not already passed through them, as most students in the Mysteries would have
done, he had at this stage to undergo the trials by earth, water, air and fire,
learning with absolute certainty that none of these elements could in any way
harm him in the astral body. All this was preparatory to the taking up of
service on the astral plane, for the Initiate had to fit himself to become a
trained and useful servant of humanity both in this and in the other world.
The Second Great
Initiation corresponds to that stage of the Christ-life which is typified by
the Baptism, in which an expansion of the intellectual faculties takes place,
just as a wonderful opening out of the emotional nature is the result of the
First Initiation. It is at this stage that the inner trial typified by the
temptation in the wilderness takes place in the life of the candidate. Then
comes the splendour of the Transfiguration, when the Monad descends and
transforms the ego into the likeness of His own glory.
THE FOURTH
INITIATION
The Fourth Great
Initiation corresponds to the Passion and Resurrection of the Christ; the
candidate must pass through the valley of the shadow of death, enduring the
utmost suffering and loneliness that he may rise forever to the fullness of
immortality. This awful and wonderful experience is the reality which is
reflected at an almost infinite distance in the degree of M.M.; through the
portal of death he is raised to the everlasting glory of the Resurrection.
Certain portions
of the ritual of this Fourth Initiation according to the Egyptian rite were
curiously entangled with the Christian teachings, and became utterly
materialized and distorted in somewhat the same way as the legend of Osiris
became distorted in Egypt itself. The rubric of this part of the Initiation was
as follows:
Then shall the
candidate be bound upon the wooden cross, he shall die, he shall be buried, and
shall descend into the underworld; after the third day he shall be brought back
from the dead, and shall be carried up into heaven to be the right hand of Him
from whom he came, having learnt to guide (or rule) the living and the dead.*
(*The Christian Creed, by the Rt. Rev. C. W. Leadbeater, p. .)
During the
ceremony the candidate laid himself down upon a wooden cross, made hollow to
receive and support his body. His arms were lightly bound with cords, the ends
of which were left loose to typify the voluntary nature of the sacrifice. The
candidate then passed into trance, left the physical body and passed in full
consciousness on to the astral plane. His body was carried down into a vault
below the temple and was placed in an immense sarcophagus, where it lay for
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
During the
mystical death of the body the candidate passed through many strange
experiences in the astral world, and preached to 'the spirits in prison', to
those who had recently left the body in death and were still fettered by their
passions and desires.
On the morning of
the fourth day of his burial, the body of the candidate was raised from its
sepulchre, and borne into the outer air at the eastern side of the great
pyramid, so that the first rays of the rising sun might awaken him from his
long sleep.
200It was at this
Initiation that the candidate was carried up into 'heaven,' to receive an
expansion of consciousness on the spiritual plane, often called the atmic or
nirvanic. That is the plane of absolute union, and that consciousness knows all
from within, is one with all and in all. The Initiate thus was made "the
right hand of Him from whom he came," being now pledged for ever to the
service of God and man, and it was to be his work henceforward to guide the
living and the dead towards the Hidden Light in which alone is peace. The great
truth that all power which is gained is but held in trust, to be used as a
means of helping others, has rarely been more clearly or more grandly set
forth.
20In The Hidden
Light in Freemasonry I have drawn certain correspondences between the three
degrees in Blue Masonry and the Great Initiations, showing that the E.A. initiation
reflects the great step of entry on the probationary path, that the Passing may
be compared to the First Great Initiation, and that the Raising resembles the
Fourth.* (*Op. cit., pp. 75 and .) We may now add the Mysteries of Egypt, and
make the following table of correspondences, always remembering, of course,
that there are vast differences of level between these Orders and the stages on
the Path:
MASONIC DEGREES
MYSTERIES
THE PATH
E.A.
F.C.
M.M.
Isis
Serapis
Osiris
Probationer
Initiate
Arhat
20THE FIFTH
INITIATION AND BEYOND
20Only one more
stage remains before human perfection is reached - that which is typified by
the Ascension into heaven. At this Fifth Initiation the Adept ascends above all
earthly life and becomes One with that aspect of the Deity which in
Christianity we call God the Holy Ghost.* (*See The Masters and the Path.)
20And still there
are higher stages, greater steps upon the Path, though belonging no longer to
human evolution but to the development of the Superman. Even here our Masonic
ceremonies reflect in symbol something of those higher glories, giving the key
to the whole vast plan. Far above the grade of Adept, He who is the Christ
stands as the Lord of Love, the Teacher of Angels and men, and along this line
of interpretation His high stage of evolution is reflected in the 18°,
which is essentially a degree of Christhood.
Equal with Him, but on the Ray of Rule, stands the Manu, whose rank is mirrored
at an almost infinite distance in the 30°; and as the crown of the whole
Hierarchy there reigns the One Initiator,* (*Ibid., Ch. xiv.) whose life and
light and glory are adumbrated in the splendour of the 33°. Thus the whole
wondrous plan of Masonic initiation is a shadow of things seen above "in
the Mount"; and herein lies the greatness of our mighty brotherhood and
its value to mankind.
20Much lower down
there are still correspondences. The 18° means glowing love and beauty, but
that is mirrored in the position of the W.J.W; the 30° gives a wonderful
outpouring of strength, which is typified by the column of the W.S.W., while
the wisdom and all-embracing sympathy of the 33° should be reflected in the
attitude of the R.W.M. of the Lodge.
20The Cretan
Mysteries
20THE UNITY OF THE
MYSTERIES
20THE group of
beliefs and practices to which we give the name of the Mysteries has existed in
many countries and in different forms, most of which have influenced
Freemasonry to a greater or a lesser extent. Widely spread as they were, their
unity of origin is to be seen in the fact that they had a certain framework
which was always the same, although they showed divergences in minor matters.
In those days, just as at the present time, a Bro. from a foreign Jurisdiction
who wished to visit had to prove himself at the door of the Lodge; for whatever
differences there may have been in the outer forms of the ritual, the s . s
were always the same, for these are the keys to the sacramental powers lying
behind all the systems of the Mysteries alike.
20LIFE IN ANCIENT
CRETE
210One of the most
striking instances of this unity is to be found in Crete, where the
comparatively recent discoveries of Sir Arthur Evans have disclosed many
Masonic symbols and forms, resembling very closely those of Egypt. Like Gaul in
the days of Caesar, ancient Crete was divided into three parts or states -
Knossos, Goulas and Polurheni. The King of Knossos was Overlord of the whole
island, for the rulers, of the other states acknowledged him as their leader,
although they were perfectly free to manage their own internal affairs. There
was also, in the south of the island, an independent city with a few miles of
territory attached to it.
All these Kings
were also ex-officio high priests, as in Egypt, and the King's palace was
always the principal temple of his State. The people worshipped a dual deity -
Father-Mother - and these two were regarded as one, though some men offered
their devotion more to the Father-aspect, and some to the Mother. The Father,
when spoken of separately, was called Brito, and the Mother Diktynna. No
statues were made of these deities, but great reverence was paid to their
symbol, which was a double-headed axe. (See Plate I, 1, following p. 50.) This
was carved in stone and made in metal, and set up in the temples where one
would naturally expect a statue, and a conventional drawing of it represented
the deity in the writing of the period. This double axe was called labrys, and
it was for it originally that the celebrated labyrinth was built, to symbolize
to the people the difficulty of finding the Path to God.
Much of their
religious service and worship was carried on out of doors. Various remarkable
isolated peaks of rock were regarded as sacred to the Great Mother, and the
King and his people went out to one or other of these on certain days in each
month, and chanted prayers and praises. A fire was lit, and each person wove a
sort of crown of leaves for himself, wore it for awhile, and then threw it into
the fire as an offering to the Mother-God. Each of these peaks had also a
special yearly festival, much like a Pardon in Brittany - a kind of
semi-religious village fair, to which people came from all parts of the island
to picnic in the open air for two or three days, and enjoyed themselves hugely.
In one case a great old tree of enormous size and unusually perfect shape was
regarded as sacred to Diktynna, and offerings were made under its branches. A
vast amount of incense was burnt under it, and it was supposed that the leaves
somehow absorbed and retained the scent, so when they fell in autumn they were
carefully collected and distributed to the people, who regarded them as talismans
which protected them from evil. That these dried leaves had a strong fragrance
is undeniable, but how far it was due to the incense seems problematical.
The people were a
fine-looking race, obviously Greek in type; their dress was simple, for the men
in ordinary life usually wore nothing but a loincloth, except when they put on
gorgeous official costumes for religious or other festivals. The women wore a
cloth which covered the whole body, but was arranged something like an Indian
dhoti in the lower part, giving rather the effect of a divided skirt.
The interior of
the island was mountainous, not unlike Sicily, and there was much beautiful
scenery. The architecture was massive, but the houses were curiously arranged.
On entering, one came directly into a large hall like a church, in which the
entire family and the servants lived all day, the cooking being done in one
corner. At the back was a covered passage (as in the houses in Java at the
present day) leading to what was in effect a separate building, in which were
the sleeping rooms. These were quite small and dark - mere cubicles - but open
all round for about two feet under the roof, so that there was ample
ventilation. Round the wall of this hall under the roof usually ran a frieze of
painted bas-relief - generally a procession, executed in the most spirited
style.
The buildings were
of granite, and there were many statues of granite, though also some made of a
softer stone, and some of copper and wood. Iron was used by this race, but not
much; the principal metal was copper. The pottery was distinctly peculiar; all
the commonest articles were made of bright yellow earthenware, painted with all
sorts of figures. These figures were generally on a broad white band round the
middle of the pot, and the colours used were nearly always red, brown or yellow
- very rarely blue or green. These were the common household pots; but for the
table they had porcelain and glass - both very well made. Most of the glass was
of a bluish-green tint, like some of the old Venetian glass - not colourless
like ours. The richer people used many vessels of gold, wonderfully chased and
sometimes set with jewels. These people were especially clever at jewellers'
work of all sorts, and made elaborate ornaments. One sees among them no
diamonds or rubies - chiefly amethysts, jasper and agate. But many ornaments
were evidently imported, for they had statuettes and models in carved ivory.
These people had
two kinds of writing, evidently corresponding to the hieroglyphic and the demotic
in Egypt, but they were quite different from the Egyptian. A decimal system
was used in calculating, and arithmetic generally seems to have been well
understood. These Cretans were good sailors, and had a powerful fleet of
galleys, some with as many as sixty oars. They used sails also - sails which
were wonderfully painted; but apparently they employed them only when the wind
was almost directly astern.
THE CRETAN RACE
These people were
an arm or family of the fourth or Keltic sub-race of the fifth or Aryan race.
In Chapter XIX of Man: Whence, How and Whither a brief history of that sub-race
is given; it includes the following remarks on the subject of the origin of the
Cretans:
The first section
[of the fourth sub-race] to cross into Europe from Asia Minor were the ancient
Greeks - not the Greeks of our 'Ancient History', but their far-away ancestors,
those who are sometimes called Pelasgians. It will be remembered that the
Egyptian priests are mentioned in Plato's Timaeus and Critias as having spoken
to a later Greek of the splendid race which had preceded his own people in his
land; how they had turned back an invasion from the mighty nation from the
West, the conquering nation that had subdued all before it, until it shivered
itself against the heroic valour of these Greeks. In comparison with these, it
was said, the modern Greeks - the Greeks of our history who seem to us so great
- were as pigmies. From these sprang the Trojans who fought with the modern
Greeks, and the city of Agade in Asia Minor was peopled by their descendants.
220These, then,
had held for a long time the sea-board of Asia Minor and the islands of Cyprus
and Crete, and all the trade of that part of the world was carried in their
vessels. A fine civilization was gradually built up in Crete, which endured for
thousands of years. The name of Minos will ever be remembered as its founder or
chief builder, and he was of these elder Greeks, even before 10,000. B.C.*
(*Op. cit., pp. 309-10.)
RECENT DISCOVERIES
IN CRETE
It is only since
the year 1900 that, largely owing to the work of Sir Arthur Evans, the modern
world has come to know something about the Cretan civilization, and to realize
that in age and splendour it compared even with the grandeur of ancient Egypt.
But even now, though there is abundant appreciation of the archaeological value
of the Cretan discoveries, not much attention has yet been given by Freemasons
to the highly interesting fact that the Minoan civilization shows us the
existence, five thousand years ago at least, of a Mystery-religion which in its
symbols and general arrangements closely resembles our modern ritual. One
feature of those Cretan Mysteries especially attractive to Co-Masons is that in
them women were admitted as well as men. The admission of women was the
practice of almost all the Mysteries of the ancient world, but clearer traces
of the fact remain to-day in Crete than in any other country. These Mysteries
do not lie in the direct line of Masonic descent; but the archaeological
remains of initiatory rites are so plentiful and so strikingly similar to our
present system as to be exceptionally interesting.
For those who are
not conversant with the results of the excavations in Crete, it may be well to
give a brief survey of the historical knowledge gained by their aid. Until
recently most text-books of history taught that the Greek civilization began in
the eighth century B.C. There were
traditions of an older civilization, with a centre in Crete, where King Minos
reigned in his palace in Knossos, and another on the mainland of Greece, where
in the Mycenaean cities Agamemnon and his heroes had prepared for the
expedition against Troy, but these accounts were taken to be of purely
legendary character until the bold perseverance of Schliemann actually laid
bare the walls of ancient Troy and discovered the tombs of the Mycenaean kings,
and so compelled the historians to realize that in this case as in others
legend had been truer than history.
The discoveries in
Crete were even more striking. When Sir Arthur Evans began his excavations on
the site of ancient Knossos he not only laid bare the palace of King Minos, but
also a series of successive strata indicative of a continuous civilization of a
very high character stretching over a period of several thousand years. It was
shown that the old legends of the labyrinth of Crete and the terrible Minotaur,
supposed to dwell in its innermost depths, were based on fact, not on fancy. It
is now known also that at the time of the first dynasty in Egypt there
flourished in the island of Crete a civilization as powerful as the Egyptian.
With regard to it Sir Arthur Evans says:
The proto-Egyptian
element in Early Minoan Crete is, in fact, so clearly defined and is so intensive
in its nature as almost to suggest something more than such a connection as
might have been brought about by primitive commerce. It may well, indeed, be
asked whether, in the time of stress and change that marked the triumph of the
dynastic element in the Nile Valley, some part of the older population then
driven out may not have made an actual settlement on the soil of Crete.* (*The
Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. I, p. .)
Though the
civilizations of ancient Egypt and Crete have much in common, yet each had
distinctly a genius of its own, and much of the similarity between them can be
explained by the fact that for long ages not only the Delta, but Middle and
Upper Egypt stood in continuous relation with Minoan Crete.
It is not our
object to enter into a further description of this Minoan civilization, which
in many respects was equal if not superior to that of our own times. We are
here concerned chiefly with the religion and the ritual usages of the ancient
Minoans, which in their details show such a remarkable likeness to modern
Freemasonry. Since the Minoan script cannot yet be deciphered, we are but very
partially informed about the thoughts and the beliefs of the Minoan race,
but from the objects found and the
monuments discovered some conclusions may be drawn which are sufficient for
our present purpose.
WORSHIP IN CRETE
The main worship
appears to have centred round the feminine aspect of the deity already
mentioned who, like Isis amongst the Egyptians and Demeter amongst the later
Greeks, symbolized the creative power and fostering care of mother-nature.
Connected with her worship was the sacred tree, depicted in so many
presentations of Minoan shrines, while the deity herself was associated with
the dove, the lion, the fish and the snake, typifying her dominion over air,
earth, water and the fire within the earth.
230As I have
written above, the most sacred symbol in Minoan worship was the double axe or
labrys. This, mounted on a stone column, is found in the shrines of ancient
Crete, and when depicted on any object or building invariably denotes its
sacred character. (See Plate I, 1 and Plate IV, 1, following p. 50.)
It was always an
emblem of the most High God, and is in reality the ancestor of the Master's
gavel, which he bears because in his humble way he represents the
All-Commander, ruling his Lodge in the name of the Spiritual King. In Crete we
often find it associated with what is called the sacral knot (Plate I, 2, following
p. 50). When thus combined it closely resembles the Egyptian ankh, the token of
immortality. (Plate I, . following p. 50.)
The Mother-Goddess
Dictynna denoted the productivity and creative power of nature; this double
axe, especially when surmounted by the sacral knot, signified the eternal truth
of death and resurrection, which was the central mystery of the religion of
Crete as it was of that of Egypt; and so it was often laid before her to typify
the ever-recurring miracle of the rebirth of tree and grain from the death of
winter. The very form of the labyrinth in the recesses of which this sacred
emblem was concealed was in itself symbolical and full of meaning; it was based
upon the cross, and the representations of it on seals and coins sometimes take
the shape of the swastika (Plate I, 4, following p. 50).
Connected with
this outer religious worship in ancient Crete there were Mysteries of
initiation for the few, and it is in these that we find the main elements of
similarity to Freemasonry. In the palace of Minos at Knossos, as also in the
palace of Phaestos - another Cretan site - we find pillared crypts and chambers
which were indubitably of a sacred and initiatory character. The most important
of these rooms is the so-called throne-room in the palace of Minos, which
derives its name from the magnificent sculptured throne which was found intact
when excavated (see Plate II, 1, following p. 50).
THE THRONE ROOM
With regard to
this room, Sir Arthur Evans says:
It is now clear
that a large part of the West Wing of the Palace was little more than a
conglomeration of small shrines, of pillared crypts designed for ritual use,
and corresponding halls above. The best preserved existing chamber of this
Quarter, the 'Room of the Throne', teems with religious suggestion. With its
elaborately carved cathedral seat in the centre and stone benches round, the
sacral griffins guarding on one side the entrance to an inner shrine, on the
other the throne itself, and, opposite, approached by steps, its mysterious
basin, it might well evoke the idea of a kind of consistory or chapter-house. A
singularly dramatic touch, from the moment of final catastrophe, was here,
indeed, supplied by the alabastra standing on the floor, beside the overturned
oil jar for their filling, with a view, we may infer, to some ceremony of
anointing. It is impossible to withhold the conclusion that the 'Room of the
Throne' at Knossos was designed for religious functions.
The salient
features in its arrangement (Plate II, 2, following p. 50), in fact, suggest an
interesting comparison with a ritual chamber recently discovered in one of the
kindred Anatolian sanctuaries. This is the 'Hall of Initiation' excavated by
the British explorers in the sanctuary of Men Askaenos and a Mother Goddess,
described as Demeter, near the Pisidian Antioch. The throne itself, the stone
benches round, and the 'tank' on the opposite side to the throne, find all
their close analogies, and are arranged in the same relative positions. In the
Galatian Sanctuary we see, on a larger scale it is true, a chamber with a
throne - in this case near, not actually against the back wall - to the right
of the entrance, while opposite it on the left side on entering the chamber is
an oblong tank. Here, too, along the back wall runs a rock-cut bench or divan,
and the chamber was approached by an ante-room or pronaos.
Cult arrangements
are often handed down almost unaltered through long periods of years, and the
striking analogies here presented afford a real presumption for believing that
the much earlier Room of the Throne at Knossos and its adjoining tank were
devised for similar rites of initiation and purification. Like him who presided
over these Anatolian rites, a Minoan priest-king may have sat upon the throne
at Knossos, the adopted Son on earth of the Great Mother of its island
mysteries. Such a personage, indeed, we may actually recognize in the Palace
relief of a figure wearing a plumed lily crown and leading, we may believe, the
sacral Griffin. It is probable, indeed, that in Crete the kingly aspect was
more to the fore than in the religious centres of Asia Minor. But both the
actual evidence from the palace site and the divine associations attributed to
Minos lead to the conclusion that here, too, each successive dynast was 'a
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech' and 'made like unto the Son of
God'.
There is little
doubt that in the room thus described we find one of the Minoan temples of the
Mysteries. Most probably, as Sir Arthur Evans suggests, the throne which is
shown in the chamber was the seat of the Hierophant, and on the stone benches
round the walls were ranged the Brn. who took part in the ritual. The
candidates for initiation had to undergo a preliminary purification in the
lustral basin before they could be admitted to the ceremonies.
240THE THREE
COLUMNS
A plan of this
Minoan Temple is shown in Plate II, 2 (following p. 50). Facing the throne of
the Hierophant were three columns, which are frequently found in the mystery
religion of Crete and were closely connected with its rites. The evidence that
the three columns bore a sacred meaning is to be found in one of the
terra-cotta models belonging to a votive shrine, which often supply us with
additional information about the Cretan Mysteries. (See Plate II, 3, following
p. 50.) We will quote Sir Arthur Evans' description of the three columns
surmounted by doves (which repeatedly occur in various models of Minoan
shrines), and his explanation of their religious meaning:
But of all these
remains, the highest religious interest attaches to a terra-cotta group
belonging to some religious structure on a larger scale than the others. It
consists of three columns on a common base, supporting in each case, above
their square 'capital', the round ends of a pair of beams on which a dove is
perched (Plate II, 3, following p. 50). The square 'capital' itself and the
beam ends above it must here be regarded as the equivalent, in an epitomized
shape, of the roof beams and entablature of a building. In other words, they
are the Pillars of the House, and the doves settled above them are the outward
and visible sign of the divine presence and protection. A clay seal with a
similar device of a dove perched above roof-beams resting on a column, itself
set on an altar base as in the Lion's Gate scheme, has now come to light at
Mycenae - a singular illustration of the Minoan source of its cult.
Of the columns
themselves, each one may be regarded as a separate religious entity, since in
place of a common entablature the superstructure is in each case separately
rendered by a kind of architectural shorthand. This Trinity of baetylic pillars
(which has many parallels in Semitic cult) itself recalls the triple
arrangement seen in the case of the Temple Fresco at Knossos and of several
late Minoan and Mycenaean shrines. The triple gold shrines of Mycenae are also
coupled with seated doves.
The seated birds,
as already observed, symbolize in this and other cases the descent of the
divinity into the possessed object. At times, as in the above instances, it is
the baetylic pillar or the cell that enshrines it. The celebrated scene on the
sarcophagus of Hagia Triada shows raven-like birds brought down by ritual
strains and libations on to the sacred Double Axes, which are thus 'charged' as
it were with the divinity. The doves on the gold chalice from Mycenae and of
'Nestor's Cup' repeat the same idea.
But it was not
only the cult object itself that could be thus sanctified by the descending
emblem of spiritual indwelling. In the case of the gold plates from the Third
Shaft Grave at Mycenae the doves are seen not only perched on the Shrine but on
the head and fluttering from the shoulders of a nude female personage (Plate
III, 2, following p. 50). So too the central clay image from the late 'Shrine
of the Double Axes' at Knossos shows the dove settled on her head. In these
cases we have either images of the Dove Goddess herself, reinforced by what may
have been her older zoomorphic form, or of a priestess deified by the descent
of the dove-spirit.
The extent to
which primitive Minoan religious conceptions were familiar to the Semitic mind
is here again illustrated by the striking parallel of the baptism in Jordan and
the picture drawn by the evangelists of the Holy Spirit 'descending in bodily
shape like a dove' and 'lighting on' Jesus. What has to be borne in mind in all
these connexions is that it is not only the inanimate or aniconic object, such
as the pillar or the sacred weapon, that may become, through due ritual, the
temporary dwelling-place of the divinity, but that the spiritual Being may
enter into the actual worshipper or votary in human form, who for the time
becomes a God, just as the baptized Christian becomes alter Christos. This
'possession' is often marked by soothsaying and ecstatic dances, and an
orgiastic dance on a Late Minoan signet, to be described below, finds its
pictorial explanation in the descent of the goddess. Musical strains such as
those of the lyre or the conch-shell or the sistrum of Egyptian cult were a
means of invocation.
These highly
interesting terra-cotta models illustrating the religious structures and ideas
of the M.M. II Period are supplemented by an object - the scale of which
answers to the same series as the group of columns - in the form of a portable
seat (Plate II, 3, following p. 50). Within it are some remains of the lower
part and attachments of a figure. It is evident that we have here a palanquin
either for a divinity or for his earthly representative, the Priest-King,
recalling the sedia-gestatoria still used by the Papa-Re at Rome.* (*Op. cit.,
pp. 222, 223, .)
In its general
arrangements the ritual chamber of the palace of Phaestos was similar to the
Masonic temple in the palace of Minos, but it contained no throne - an omission
which is explained by the portable seat found in the shrine. Evidently in some
cases the initiator in the Mysteries was carried in procession and retained the
seat in which he had been borne.
MODELS OF SHRINES
250The
accompanying figures (Plate III, 1; Plate IV, 1, 2, 3, following p. 50) show
models of fresco paintings of Minoan shrines. In Plate III, 1, a gold plaque
from Mycenae, we see again the three columns surmounted by the horns of
consecration which, like the double axe, denote the sacred character of the
object, and the ritual significance is further emphasized by the doves perched
on the ends of the sacred horns. In looking at these illustrations of Minoan
sanctuaries we must remember that the side walls of the chamber are flattened
out in the picture and not drawn in perspective, so that we must in imagination
fold the two side panels of the picture of the shrine forward so as to form
three walls of a shrine room. Underneath the pillars in the different
illustrations the floors are paved, as shown in Plate IV, 2 and 3 (following p.
50), in black and white squares similar to the mosaic pavement of the Masonic
Lodge.
In the Minoan sanctuaries
we have so far seen the seat of the Hierophant or Master on one side, the
benches for the brethren round the walls, three sacred columns as the principal
furniture of the temple and a mosaic pavement of alternating dark and light
squares in the centre. In addition, in some of the model shrines we find on one
side of the room two pillars side by side; this arrangement was also discovered
with the two pillars standing in the excavation of the crypt in the Palace of
Minos (see Plate V, 1, following p. 50). Of these crypts Sir Arthur Evans says:
There is clear
evidence, as shown below, that such pillared crypts fulfilled a religious
function and stood in relation to a columnar shrine above. There can be little
doubt that we have here the remains of an important sanctuary facing the inner
sea gate of the Palace.* (*Op. cit., p. 40.)
THE ALTAR OBJECTS
Still further
evidence of the Masonic character of the Minoan rites is shown by the
remarkable objects found in the temple repositories in which were kept the
different altar-objects connected with the ritual worship in the chamber of
initiation. Sir Arthur Evans has rearranged these objects on the altar ledge
for which they were no doubt intended, and we show a reproduction of his
arrangement in Plate V, 2 (following p. 50). Perhaps the most arresting feature
is the marble cross in the centre of the altar. The cross with equal arms, or
Greek cross, as well as the Latin cross and the swastika, are found repeatedly
in connection with the Minoan cult, and since in all ages the cross has
symbolized either the mystery of creation and the descent of the divine life
into manifestation, or else the mystic death and resurrection of the soul, we
have here striking evidence that these conceptions were also at the base of the
Cretan Mysteries.
On either side of
the cross on the altar ledge the figures wear aprons, which were clearly of a
ritual character, for they are not to be met with in ordinary Cretan dress (see
Plate V, 3, following p. 50). The apron was evidently double, extending both in
front and at the back, and differed in details in the case of the goddess and
her priestess. It is possible, and in some respects even probable, that both
female figures found on the altar are worshippers of the cross and the triple
snake, in which case the different character of the two aprons may well denote
a difference in the rank or degree of the wearers. Evans expresses his opinion
that the double aprons are of a ritual character.* (*Op. cit., p. 50.)
VARIOUS SYMBOLS
There were also
some lesser religious symbols and objects which are of such decidedly Masonic
character that they are worth mentioning. In Plate VI, 1 (following p. 50), we
see a relic of bone found in the temple repository which, as Evans says
"is in the shape alternately of flowers and buds, suggested by those of a
pomegranate". Further symbols familiar to Freemasons are the frequently
recurring sun and moon, shown in our illustration (Plate VI, 2 and 3, following
p. 50) on a bronze votive tablet from the Psychro cave, and a gold ring from
Mycenae. With regard to the former Evans says:
The tree, dove and
fish, which here appear as the vehicles of divine possession, aptly symbolize
her dominion of earth, air and sea. The triple group of sacral horns further
emphasize the threefold aspect of the cult, which also explains the triple
basin of the Libation Table. So, too, we see the pillar shrines of the goddess,
like that of the Knossian wall-painting, regularly divided into three
compartments.
Both the votive
tablet and the ring are full of religious meaning and Masonic symbolism, and
well repay close study. They incidentally show how far the Minoan worship
spread from Crete to the mainland. Similarly the introduction of the Masonic
square as a decorative pattern on a vase found in Aphidna on the mainland of
Greece is of interest as showing that with the spread of Minoan culture to the
Mycenaean settlements the symbols of the Minoan mystery religion too were carried
abroad. (See Plate VII, 1, following p. 50.)
260THE STATUETTES
But these
evidences of Masonic symbolism, decisive as they are, are surpassed by the
testimony presented by a number of statuettes and votive figures found in Crete
or in the outposts of Minoan civilization, which are represented in such
indubitably Masonic attitudes (some of which now belong to the higher degrees)
that even the most sceptical student must acknowledge that no chance can
explain this similarity. (See Plates VII and VIII following p. 50.) It would
not be in accordance with Masonic secrecy to mention the degrees to which the
different attitudes belong, but all Masons will readily recognize them.
Ridiculous as these statuettes are, if they were the only evidence found in
Crete they would be sufficient to indicate the existence of Mysteries of a
Masonic Character in that ancient civilization. But where that evidence is
supported by the various proofs discussed above no doubt can remain that four
thousand years ago and more there existed in Crete Mysteries in which Masonic
signs and symbols were used, which admitted both men and women, and performed
their rites in temples very similar to
those of modern Freemasonry.
The Jewish
Mysteries
THE JEWISH LINE OF
DESCENT
ALTHOUGH our
modern Freemasonic rites and symbols are derived from Egypt, as has been shown
in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, they have reached us for the most part
through the Jews. The tradition which has most influenced our modern Masonry is
that of the Jewish Mysteries, so the greater part of our ceremonies and s . s
are now cast in a Jewish form.
In The Hidden Life
in Freemasonry it has been explained that many of the traditions preserved in
the Old Testament have a basis in fact, although the actual events of Jewish
history were magnified and distorted through the lens of an almost fanatical
patriotism by the later compilers of the records. The Jewish scriptures as we
have them today were almost entirely rewritten after the return from the
captivity; and the priestly writers who did this work transfigured in a glow of
enthusiastic romance the poetic traditions of their nation.
THE JEWISH
MIGRATIONS
The Jewish race is
an offshoot of that Semitic people who formed the fifth sub-race of the
Atlantean root-race. Some four thousand years before the great cataclysm of
75,025 B.C., which overwhelmed the first Atlantean empire of Egypt, the Manu
had led His especial followers into the uplands of Arabia in order that they
might be separated from the bulk of the Atlanteans, and that a new type might
be evolved from them which would later be developed into the Aryan root-race.
Strict injunctions were given by the Manu that there was to be no intermarriage
with neighbouring races, so that the purity of the new stock might be
maintained; and the idea of these men that they were a "chosen
people" was fostered to that end. Shortly before the cataclysm some seven
hundred of the best and most promising of these people were led into Central
Asia by the Manu, and they grew there after many thousands of years into a
great nation, the nucleus of the Aryan race that was later to rule the world.
About 40,000 B.C.
the Manu led out the second sub-race of the new root-race to colonize Arabia
once more, since the Semites who had been left behind were the closest of the
Atlantean peoples to the new stock. Arabia became a great Aryan kingdom,
excepting only a certain section of those inhabiting the southern part of the
peninsula, who declined to recognize the Manu or to intermarry with His people,
quoting His own regulation against Him in defence of their refusal. Later this
tract of country was conquered by the Aryans, and a fanatical section of its
inhabitants forsook their homes, and settled on the opposite coast of the Red
Sea in what we now call Somaliland. Here they lived for several centuries, but
in consequence of an attempt on the part of the majority to intermarry with the
negroes of the interior, a fairly large minority of them withdrew from the community,
and, after many wanderings, found themselves in Egyptian territory. The Pharaoh
of the period, interested in their story, offered them an outlying district of
his kingdom if they chose to settle there. Eventually some Pharaoh made a
demand upon them for additional taxation and forced work which they considered
an infringement of their privileges; and they once more undertook a wholesale
migration under the leadership of him whom we now call Moses, and after further
wanderings settled in Palestine, where they were known as the Jews, still
strongly maintaining that they were a chosen people.* (*See Man: Whence, How
and Whither, Ch. xiv and xvi, passim.)
During their
sojourn in Egypt certain of them had been initiated into some of the degrees of
the Egyptian Mysteries. Moses, as was said much later, "was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians",* (*Acts, vii, .) and he seems to have been
the real founder of the Jewish Mysteries, much as tradition suggests,
introducing into them the succession of I.M.s which he had received from the
Egyptian priests. Our investigations have not confirmed the events related in
the early chapters of the book of Exodus with regard to the ten plagues and the
smiting of the Egyptians; the Jews departed without much opposition, and after
many years of wandering in the wilderness conquered various tribes and took
possession of Palestine. Indeed their migration seems to have been inspired to
some extent by the Manu. During their wanderings they used a tent for the
celebration of their Mysteries, preserved in Hebrew tradition as the
tabernacle; in this they worked in essence the Egyptian rituals, though the
whole celebration was under such conditions on a much smaller and less
splendid scale. These are the facts lying behind the Masonic tradition of the
First or Holy Lodge.
THE PROPHETS
It appears that
Moses was also acquainted with the great ritual of Amen as worked in the
Mysteries of Egypt, and some portion at least of this tradition was transmitted
to his successors. There arose in later times a school in connection with the
Mysteries, the members of which had the idea of personifying the children of
Israel as one Being who might shed blessing over all nations; and they
attempted to arouse among them the sense of unity necessary for this purpose
partly by means of ritual. There were also the schools of the prophets, who
were trained in the Mysteries and studied the deeper teaching enshrined in the
ancient rites. One such school is mentioned in the Old Testament as existing
at Naioth under the direction of the prophet Samuel,* (*Sam., xix, 20.) and
there were others later at Bethel and Jericho.* (*II Kings, ii, 2, .)
These schools were
not so much concerned with prophecy in our modern sense of foretelling the
future, as with endeavouring to instruct the people by preaching; they seem to
have resembled in many ways the preaching friars sent out by the Roman Church
during the middle ages, the Franciscans and other Orders. These preachers were
chosen from among the Levites, and were sent forth to proclaim the deeper
teaching in a popular form. It is probable that many of the greater Jewish
prophets belonged to a later development of these schools - Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel and others - but they were always somewhat pessimistic in their
outlook, even though several of them unquestionably touched high levels of
consciousness in their visions. Their method was apparently to throw themselves
into a state of tremendous exaltation, and then to look up into a higher plane
through a kind of shaft which they had opened. It was in this way that Ezekiel
saw the vision of the four Kings of the elements. These Great Ones can be seen
clearly only with the sight of the spiritual or nirvanic plane; it does not
appear that Ezekiel had touched that exalted level directly, but he became
aware of it in his ecstasy as though looking up to it from below.
THE BUILDERS OF K.
S. T.
Something both of
the inner powers and of the Egyptian rituals had been faithfully handed down
from generation to generation from the days of Moses until King Solomon came to
the throne of his father David. There is some truth in the tradition preserved
in the Bible, although there are exaggerations and mistakes in the accounts
which have come down to us, and much of the inner meaning of the symbols had
been forgotten. King Solomon seems to have been a man of considerable force of
character and some occult knowledge, and the great ambition of his life was to
weld his people into a strong and respected kingdom, able to take an
influential place among the nations around. To that end he built the temple in
Jerusalem to be the centre of the religious worship of his people and a symbol
of their national unity; it was perhaps not quite so magnificent as tradition
relates, but the King was nevertheless extremely proud of it and considered it
to be one of the great achievements of the age.
In this work he
was assisted by his ally, Hiram King of Tyre, who supplied a quantity of
material for the building, and lent many clever craftsmen to aid in the work;
for the Phoenicians were more skilled in building than the Jews, who were
chiefly a pastoral people. Also about fifty years before some of the wandering
bands of Masons who called themselves the Dionysian Artificers had settled in
Phoenicia, so King Hiram was able to supply many expert workmen. This alliance
is a matter of secular history, for Josephus tells us that even in his day
copies of the letters which passed between the two Kings existed in the Tyrian
archives and might be consulted by students.* (*Josephus. Ant., viii.) Hiram
Abiff was also a real personage, though he did not meet his death in the manner
recorded in Masonic tradition. He was a decorator rather than the actual
Architect of the Temple, as the biblical records clearly tell us. "He was
filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in
brass."* (*I Kings, vii, .) He was "skilful to work in gold, and in
silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in
fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find
out every device which shall be put to him".* (*II Chron., ii, .)
Josephus confirms
the tradition that he was an artist and a craftsman rather than an architect:
"This man was skilful in all sorts of work, but his chief skill lay in
working in gold and silver and brass, and he did all the curious work about the
temple as the King wished."* (*Josephus, Ant., viii.) He was the son of a
widow of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass before
him. Since so much responsibility rested in his hands, and he was so skilful an
artist, he appears to have been in the close confidence of King Solomon, and a member
of his council. He was evidently treated as an equal by the two Kings, and that
is one of the reasons which influenced Bro. Ward to translate Hiram Abiff as
"Hiram his father", and to represent the King of Tyre as sending his
abdicated father to superintend the decoration of the temple.
THE RECASTING OF
THE RITUALS
But King Solomon's
plans for the consolidation of his people were not yet complete; by the
building of his temple he had formed an outer centre of national worship, and
he now desired that the Mysteries, the heart of his people's religion and the
centre of their spiritual consciousness, should also be purely Jewish in their
form. The ceremonial handed down from the days of Moses was still Egyptian, and
the initiates of the mysteries were yet symbolically engaged in building the
great pyramid, the House of Light, and in celebrating the death and
resurrection of Osiris. Even though it had no corresponding halls of
initiation, King Solomon desired that for the future his temple should take the
place of the House of Light, and become the spiritual centre of the Jewish
Mysteries. King Hiram of Tyre warmly supported this idea; he himself had
inherited initiatory rites which had been derived from the Mysteries of
Chaldaea, a very ancient line of tradition running parallel with the Mysteries
of Egypt from Atlantean days, and having its own chief halls of initiation in
Babylon. He, too, felt that a centre nearer home and in friendly hands was
eminently desirable, and he therefore co-operated in the plan of Judaizing the
ancient rites and focusing them upon the temple in Jerusalem.
At first, it
appears, the two Kings sent an embassy to Egypt to consult the Pharaoh in the
matter, telling him of the temple which they had built, and asking for some
recognition of the Jewish branch of the Mysteries. The Pharaoh did not accept
their proposals with any degree of enthusiasm, but rather implied that no
foreigner could possibly understand the Mysteries of Egypt. The Egyptians of
the period seem to have regarded their Jewish brethren with something of the
same feeling that the Grand Lodge of England might have towards the Grand
Orient of Hayti if it should propose alterations in the ritual, and their
interest in the new venture was decidedly cold. We find no confirmation of the
story of the marriage of King Solomon to Pharaoh's daughter, as is related in
the Bible; indeed, this union is now generally rejected by the critics as
impossible, for according to the Tell el-Amarna tablets, an Egyptian princess
might not marry a foreigner.* (*Peake's Commentary on the Bible, p. .)
THE MINGLING OF
TRADITIONS
On the return of
their embassy from Egypt King Solomon and King Hiram called together the
council at Jerusalem, and it was decided that they should proceed immediately
with the work of recasting the rituals into the Jewish form. It is an
interesting fact that three distinct lines of tradition were represented in the
persons of the three chief members of the council, and of each of these we can
find traces in our modern workings. King Solomon himself had inherited the
Egyptian line of succession derived from Moses; King Hiram of Tyre preserved
the Chaldaean descent; while Hiram Abiff brought with him another line of
tradition, not derived from either of these sources.
This last line was
strange and terrible - a line probably perpetuated through savage and primitive
tribes who had bloodthirsty customs of mutilation and human sacrifice. I think
it must be to this line that Bro. Ward refers in his remarkable work Who was
Hiram Abiff? in which he adduces a vast amount of evidence to show that our
traditional history is based upon the myth of the death and resurrection of
Tammuz, and is in reality an account of the ritual murder of one of the
Priest-Kings of that religion. He points out that most primitive races enact a
drama in which some one, usually a priest or king, represents a god who is
slain and comes to life again; that in earlier times at any rate such a
representative was really killed and offered up as a sacrifice to ensure
fertility; that we first hear of this myth of Tammuz in connection with
Babylon, and that the tribes in the neighbourhood of Judaea were all addicted
to the worship of that deity. In fact, among the Jews themselves we find the
prophets blaming the Hebrew ladies for taking part in the ritual mourning for
him.* (*Ezekiel, viii, .)
Solomon himself
was by no means definitely monotheistic, and his people betrayed a distinct
tendency to run after strange gods. There seems much evidence to prove that the
love-song attributed to him in the Bible is really a ritual hymn to Astarte,
for whom he built a temple quite near to that of Jehovah. There is considerable
uncertainty as to whether Balkis, Queen of Sheba, was a real person, or only a
personification of Astarte. Bro. Ward explains that the festivals of the two
patron saints of Freemasonry, S. John the Baptist in summer and S. John the
Evangelist in winter, are only a perpetuation of the feasts of the old
fertility cult at the summer and winter solstices; that similar cultural rites
are found in other lands, Teutonic, Celtic and Greek, that they also survived
among the Essenes, and that the Knights Templars brought back from Syria a
story very similar to that of the 3°. The tale of Jonah, he remarks, has always
been understood as a myth of death and resurrection, and he also was sacrificed
to appease a deity, and obtain salvation for others, just as was the
Priest-King of old. He quotes many instances of foundation and consecration
sacrifices; and, holding as he does that Hiram Abiff was the father of that
other Hiram who was King of Tyre, he writes:
The Phoenician and
Jewish followers of the old Tammuz cult no doubt felt that the Great Goddess
had been cheated of her just dues when Hiram Abiff was not slain, according to
ancient custom, on the accession of his son, and were confident that if he were
not sacrificed when the temple was completed, its future and stability would be
endangered. . So I consider that the Phoenician workmen, with or without the
consent of Solomon, killed the old King of Tyre, Abibaal or Hiram Abiff, as a
Consecration Sacrifice.* (*Who was Hiram Abiff? by J.S.M. Ward, p. .)
While we can
hardly accept the suggestion that the ancestry of our modern rite is wholly
Syrian, we cannot doubt that the influence of the third line of tradition
especially contributed by Hiram Abiff was very considerable. We note also that
it seems to have been especially concerned with the working of metals.
All that is found
in our modern rituals about Lamech and his sons, about Jubal, the founder of
the art of music, and Tubal Cain, the first artificer in metals, appears to
belong to the line of tradition which Hiram Abiff introduced.
This council was
the originator of the greater part of our modern Masonic working; the main
outline of the Egyptian ritual was carefully preserved (although King Solomon
on more than one occasion referred to his brother of Tyre on points of detail)
together with the s . s, and although the w . s were given in Hebrew, for the
most part their meaning remained the same. King Solomon himself seems to have
been largely responsible for our ceremony of raising; he it was who, at the
instance of Hiram Abiff, changed the legend of Osiris into that of the master
builder who attempted to escape by the S., N., and E. g . s and was s . n
because he would not divulge the s . s of a M.M. The name of the original
master builder was not of course given as now, for he himself assisted in the
construction of the legend; neither was there any fatality connected with the
actual building of the holy temple. The insertion of the present name was the
work of Rehoboam, when he succeeded to the throne of Solomon his father, as I
have said in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry; so the story came to be applied to
the person of Hiram, the widow's son.
A very curious
tradition still exists in the 3° of the rite of Mizraim. In that rite the
central figure of the legend is not H.A., who is said to have returned to his
family after the completion of the temple; but the story is carried back to the
days of Lamech, whose son Jubal, under the name of Harrio-Jubal-Abi, is
reported to have been slain by three traitors, Hagava, Hakina, and Heremda.
(Mackey's Encyclopaedia, art. Mizraim.) The rite of Mizraim, as we shall see
later, is extremely old, and may well have incorporated another tradition than
that handed down in Europe; for it appears to have been introduced from the
East towards the end of the eighteenth century. It may be that we have here
another echo of that line of tradition which Hiram Abiff represented on the
council of King Solomon.
Such was the
important work undertaken by the second or Sacred Lodge. The succession of
I.M.s was handed down into the new dispensation, and thenceforward Masters of
Lodges deriving their succession from the Mysteries of the Hebrews have always
sat in the Chair of King Solomon, while the two Wardens occupy those of Hiram
King of Tyre and Hiram Abiff. Thus there is a very real truth behind our
Masonic tradition.
290The original
traditional history as adapted by King Solomon contained much more of the
legend of Osiris, and was altogether more coherent and reasonable than it is
to-day; for there was a resurrection of the master-builder as well as a death,
and the search of Isis for the body of Osiris was reflected in the search of
certain craftsmen for the body of the Master. But this was rather in the nature
of a verbal charge than apiece of ritual working, and it was therefore more
likely to become distorted in the course of ages. This is exactly what took
place. The ceremonies were handed down from age to age with very few changes,
but they were at several epochs clothed in a new set of words, which reflected
the spirit of the times; while the legend associated with the ritual of the 3°
became sadly marred in its passage throughout the centuries, until in its
present form it is a mere shadow of the glorious teaching of the Mysteries of
Egypt from which it was derived.
THE TRANSMISSION
OF THE NEW RITES
The Mysteries were
transmitted from generation to generation for the next three hundred and fifty
years, during the survival of the kingdom of Judah. In 586 B.C. the city of
Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the people were led captive into
Babylon. During the captivity the Mysteries were interrupted, and it does not
seem probable that they were seriously worked during the fifty years of exile.
Nevertheless, the succession of I.M.s remained unbroken, and when the people
returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, they also tried to reconstruct
their rites of initiation.
Herein we find the
facts underlying the tradition of the third or Grand and Royal Lodge; for
Zerubbabel, the prince of Judah, and Jeshua, the high priest, were largely
instrumental in this work of restoration and renewal. The same difficulty
recurred again, for it was never allowed to write down the rituals; once more
it was necessary to rely upon memory for the major part of the tradition, and
only a very few could have recollected the actual workings in the days before
the captivity. Nevertheless they succeeded in reconstructing the rites with
tolerable accuracy, although once more the traditional history suffered
distortion through being imperfectly remembered. Such is the story of that line
of succession which eventually found its way into the Roman Collegia, in the
first place by direct descent from the teaching of King Numa, then by the
migration of the rites of Attis and Cybele to Rome about 200 B.C., and again
through the medium of the returning soldiers of the armies of Vespasian and
Titus. From these Collegia it has been handed down with singularly little
change in essentials to our modern Lodges.
Besides the three
Craft degrees which formed the main structure of the Jewish Mysteries, there
were also other Masonic traditions handed down from Egypt. That which is now
the Holy Royal Arch had its place in the working, while the ideas contained in
what we now call the Mark degree were associated with the 2° as the Arch was
with the 3°. Although in English working the period of the Arch is represented
to be that of Zerubbabel and the Second Temple, the Irish Chapters refer the
whole legend to the days of King Josiah, while the Royal Arch of Enoch, which
differs considerably in detail, though the symbology has the same significance
and purpose, is described as belonging to the time of King Solomon himself. The
absence of a fixed period is noteworthy as indicating that the historical
setting is only of secondary importance, and that the main purpose of the
degree is to convey symbolical instruction.
THE ESSENES AND
THE CHRIST
The tradition of
the Mysteries was transmitted from century to century, until we find it among
the Essenes, who also appear to have inherited Chaldaean rites. It was in this
school that the disciple Jesus lived in preparation for His ministry, after
receiving a high initiation into the true Mysteries of Egypt. The Essenes had
among other Chaldaean rites inherited what was afterwards known as the Mithraic
eucharist, the ceremony of bread and wine and salt, which, as we shall see
later, was transmitted through the ages until it was incorporated in the modern
degree of the Rose-Croix of Heredom. The consecration of those elements was and
is wonderful, though there is not so full a descent of the Divine Presence as
in the corresponding ritual of Amen used in ancient Egypt. It seems probable,
however, that the Lord Christ took the
Mithraic supper as the basis of His holy eucharist, and while preserving the
ancient symbolism of the elements changed them into His own special vehicle,
symbolized as His Body and Blood - the very closest and most intimate of all
the sacraments known to man.
The Mithraic
eucharist brought the worshipper into close touch with the divine Life; the
mystic supper of the Rose-Croix lifts the Sovereign Prince into a wonderful
union with Christ, the Lord of love; in the ritual of Amen the Brn. bowed to
each who had partaken of the sacrament saying, "Thou art Osiris."
The holy eucharist of the Christian Church is the last and most wonderful of
all, for in it we receive Him, the Lord of Love, and the sacred Host is just as
fully and perfectly His vehicle as was the body of Jesus in Palestine two
thousand years ago. It seems probable that He took the existing sacrament which
was regularly celebrated in the Essene community, and transfigured it into
another and holier eucharist, which has become the glory of His Church from
generation to generation.
KABBALISM
With the
tremendous impetus given by the coming of the Lord the mysteries received a
greater inspiration than had been theirs since the days of Moses. Part of the
mystic teaching belonging to them later passed into writing, and in the Kabbala
we find fragments of the symbolic knowledge which was once the exclusive
property of the initiates. So close are the analogies between certain of the
doctrines of the Kabbala and those of the earlier degrees of Masonry that it
has been supposed that Kabbalistic students were responsible for the introduction
of speculative Masonry into our modern Craft. The student of occultism does not
hold this view, for he knows that our speculative rituals belong in substance
to a far older past than the eighteenth century, and that they perpetuate the
tradition of the Jews, who derived it from the Mysteries of Egypt. He sees in
the literature of the Kabbala a written and exoteric portion of certain
teachings belonging to the Jews, though handed down along an independent line,
which may nevertheless have crossed that of our own Craft and influenced it to
some extent in later days. There is much in the Kabbala which throws light upon
our ceremonies and symbols, and a study of Kabbalistic Theosophy may be of both
profit and interest to the Mason.
The briefest
summary is all that we can attempt here.* (*See The Secret Tradition in Israel,
The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, A New Encyclopaedia, all by Bro. A. E.
Waite.) The literature of the Kabbala represents a growth of many centuries
under the influence of many types of thought - Jewish, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic,
Greek, Arabic and even Persian - and it has never been fully translated into
any European language. It consists of certain great texts written in Hebrew and
Aramaic, and a mass of commentaries upon them compiled by Jews of many lands
and many ages. The most important texts are the Sepher Yetzirah, which explains
the mystic meanings underlying the Hebrew alphabet, and erects a vast system of
mystical and occult speculation upon the combinations and permutations of the
various letters; and the Sepher ha Zohar, or Book of Splendour, which is a
medley of history and legend, of fable and of fact, of mysticism and fantastic
speculation which, like all such literature, contains priceless gems of occult
wisdom hidden in a mass of rubbish. Both these texts claim to date from the
second century A.D., but in reality they were not written down until a later
period, the former being completed about the tenth century, and the latter
before the thirteenth. They became known to the educated people of Europe about
the time when speculative Masonry was beginning to emerge into the light of day
(that is during the seventeenth century) through various Latin works, the chief
of which are Baron Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata, the OEdipus
AEgyptiacus of Athanasius Kircher, the De Arte Cabalistica of Reuchlin and a
Latin translation of the Yetzirah. As Bro. A. E. Waite, our chief authority in
this field, has pointed out:
The written Jewish
tradition presupposes throughout a tradition which did not pass into writing.
The Zohar, for example, which is its chief memorial, refers everywhere to a
great body of doctrine as something perfectly well-known by the circle of
initiation for which the work was alone intended.* (*Secret Tradition in
Freemasonry, I, .)
The skeleton of
this body of doctrine has reached us in the symbolism of Masonry, although
along so different a line; and in the Kabbala we may find a clue to much that
is obscure in our modern rituals.
THE
SPIRITUALIZATION OF THE TEMPLE
Two mystical
concepts found in the Zohar relate directly to our subject - the
spiritualization of the temple of King Solomon, and the doctrine of the lost
word, both of which have their roots in the Egyptian Mysteries, as we have
already seen. King Solomon's temple formed the physical basis for a vast
structure of mystical speculation and inquiry; for its measurements and
proportions were held to have a relation to those of the universe, and all the
sacred objects which it contained had their macrocosmic and microcosmic
interpretations. The Shekinah or divine glory which irradiated the innermost
sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was interpreted not only as the divine Presence
which hallowed the visible temple, but as God immanent in His universe and
indwelling in the heart of man.
Furthermore, the
idea of the Jews that some day the temple should be rebuilt is itself
spiritualized and transformed, and it was taken as an allegory of the
attainment of divine perfection both in man and the universe. The Jews, whose
rich Oriental minds delighted in
exuberant and complex allegory, conceived a veritable city of temples,
of which King Solomon's was but the symbol - temples and palaces each relating
to a different aspect or plane of nature and forming an intricate system of
reflections and correspondences. The prototype of all this wealth of symbolism
is found in the Mysteries of Egypt, wherein the measurements of the great
pyramid were studied as emblematical of the proportions of the universe, and
contained vast stores of occult and astronomical lore. The Jews applied what
they knew of the Egyptian system to the temple of King Solomon, reflecting the
wisdom of Egypt through the lens of their own fiery and poetical temperament,
whence some portion of it gradually passed on the one hand into written and
exoteric literature, and on the other was handed down in the secret Lodges of
Masonry.
THE LOSS OF THE
DIVINE NAME
The second great
doctrine of Kabbalism which concerns us here is the loss of the divine Name, or
rather of the correct method of pronouncing that Name. The Jews thought of
this Name as a word of four letters, J.H.V.H., which we generally read as
Jehovah. The tradition relates that the Omnific Word which, being the Name of
God, commanded all the creative forces of Nature, was pronounced by the high
priest once a year on the day of atonement, but that after the exile the true
pronunciation was lost. The consonants remained, but the vowel points essential
to correct articulation had been forgotten. (The present Masoretic system of
vowel points was introduced only in the tenth century A.D.) This was woven into
a beautiful allegory of the descent into matter and of the fall of man; for
immersed in matter as we are at our present stage of evolution, we cannot utter
the word or know the divine Nature in its fullness, but can perceive only the
outer shell of things, represented by the remaining consonants. And even this
we do not understand, and therefore for even that much of the Divine Name a
substituted secret is necessary. And so in the tradition whenever the word
Yahweh occurred in the reading of the Law, the name Adonai (meaning "my
Lord") was substituted for it. (The modern word Jehovah is made by using
the consonants JHVH, and intercalating the vowels from the word Adonai.) The
tradition looks forward to a future when time or circumstances shall have
restored the genuine method of pronunciation, and man will return to the God
from whom he came forth, able to utter the word in all its mighty power, to
command the forces latent in his own divinity.
All this was
interwoven with the doctrine of the Logos, the Word of God, expounded so
admirably by Philo, and known to all Christians from the opening words of the
Gospel of S. John; for the whole tradition of the divine Word is derived from
the Mysteries of Egypt. The true Tetragrammaton was not the Name of God in
Hebrew, but another and far more ancient word, which has ever been known to
initiates of high degree. A Christian development of this symbolism forms the
device of a jewel worn by a certain high official in the Scottish Rite. Under the old covenant the word was lost, and
even when restored through the discovery of a certain secret vault, its true
pronunciation was unknown; the end of the quest was not yet reached, though it
was in sight. The new covenant added in the centre yet one letter more, the mystic Shin, emblematical of fire and of
the Spirit; and so the Word Jehovah became Jeheshua, the Name of the Christ.
Which things are an allegory, for it is only by the finding of the Christ in
the heart that the lost word can be rediscovered, and that very finding brings
the knowledge of the true Tetragrammaton - that secret of man's eternal being,
which from the beginning has been written upon the cross of sacrifice and
always kept hidden in the heart of the world among the secret things of God.
30Such is a brief
outline of those Jewish Mysteries, the tradition of which was carried to Rome,
and thence passed down through the Collegia into the mediaeval guilds, finally
emerging in the eighteenth century in the speculative rituals of the Craft
degrees, in the Holy Royal Arch and the degree of Mark Master Mason, and in
those other emblems and ceremonies which have been incorporated into certain of
the subsidiary grades belonging in their symbolic time to the old covenant. The
Jewish Mysteries are the source of our present tradition, for the three Craft
degrees are, and always have been, the basis of the whole system of Masonic
initiation, since they enshrine the relics of the Lesser and Greater Mysteries
of Egypt, which alone can be termed degrees in their original form. But before
we pass on to our next link in the Masonic chain of descent - that of Rome and
its Colleges - it may be well to touch upon certain of the other great
Mystery-systems which were famous in the ancient world.
The Greek
Mysteries
THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
WE come now to the
Mysteries of Greece, of which the best-known and most important in classical
times were the Eleusinian. There seems to be a widely-spread delusion, the
origin of which we can trace to the writings of the Christian Fathers, that the
Mysteries of antiquity were kept secret because they contained much that was
improper, and that would not bear the light of day. That is not so in the
least, and I am in a position to bear direct testimony, having been myself an
initiate of the Mysteries, that there was nothing whatever in them of an
objectionable character. The teachings were all of the highest and purest
nature, and they could not but benefit very greatly all who had the privilege
of being initiated into them. In classical and post-classical times many of the
greatest men have borne witness to their worth.
A few quotations - samples of many - will be sufficient to show this.
Sophocles, the great tragic poet, says of them:
Thrice-happy are
those mortals who after the contemplation of the Mysteries go down into the
realms of Hades; for there they alone will possess true life: for the rest
there is naught but suffering.* (*Sophocles fr. 348, quoted Foucart: Les
Mysteres d'Eleusis, p. .)
Plato says through
the mouth of Socrates in that wonderful death-scene in the Phaedo:
I fancy that those
men who established the Mysteries were not unenlightened, but in reality had a
hidden meaning when they said long ago, that whoever goes uninitiated and
unsanctified to the other world will lie in the mire, but he who arrives there
initiated and purified will dwell with the Gods.* (*Plato. Phaedo. Loeb.
Edition, p. .)
Cicero was
initiated into them and held them in the highest reverence,* (*Cic. De. Leg.,
II, .) while Proclus tells us in the last days of the pagan faith:
The most holy
Rites of Eleusis vouchsafe to the Initiates enjoyment of the good offices of
Kore when they shall be delivered from their bodies.* (*Proclus. Comment. in
Plat. rem pub. quoted Foucart, loc. cit., p. .)
It is true that in
the time of the decadence of Rome there were degenerate ceremonies connected
with the Mysteries of Bacchus, which involved orgies of a very unpleasant
character, but they were in no way connected with the original Eleusinian
Mysteries, which by that time had faded almost entirely into the background.
The modern world
knows little of the truth about the Greek Mysteries, for their activities and
doctrines were really kept secret. Apart from the strong pressure of public opinion,
which treated the slightest violation of secrecy as an act of terrible impiety,
we hear of the death-penalty being inflicted in a case of the accidental
intrusion of two non-initiates into the sacred enclosure at Eleusis during the
celebration of the Mysteries.* (*Livy, xxxi, .) Very little, therefore of
direct fact has reached us from pagan sources; the greater part of our
information comes from the Christian
writers, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Arnobius and others, who
were engaged upon destroying as much as possible of the pagan religion, and
therefore always spoke of the Mysteries in the worst possible light. Something
is known of a few of the exterior tests that were applied to candidates, and of
the teaching that was given through the various myths. When people outside
pressed for information, and would not be put off, the officials permitted so
much to be revealed.
320THE ORIGIN OF
THE GREEK MYSTERIES
The original
founder of the Greek Mysteries was Orpheus, who was an incarnation of the same
great World Teacher who had come to Egypt in 40,000 B.C. as Thoth or Hermes, to
preach the doctrine of the Hidden Light. But now the method of His message was
different; for it was spoken to a different race.
About 7000 B.C, He
came, living chiefly in the forests, where He gathered His disciples around
Him. There was no king to bid him welcome, no gorgeous court to acclaim Him. He
came as a singer, wandering through the land, loving the life of Nature, her
sunlit spaces and her shadowed forest retreats, averse to cities and to the
crowded haunts of men. A band of disciples grew around Him, and He taught them
in the glades of woodland, silent save for the singing of the birds and the
sweet sounds of forest life, that seemed not to break the stillness.
He taught by song,
by music, music of voice and instrument, carrying a five-stringed musical
instrument, probably the origin of Apollo's lyre, and He used a pentatonic
scale. To this He sang, and wondrous was His music, the Angels drawing nigh to
listen to the subtle tones; by sound He worked upon the astral and mental
bodies of His disciples, purifying and expanding them; by sound He drew the
subtle bodies away from the physical, and set them free in the higher worlds.
His music was quite different from the sequences, repeated over and over again,
by which the same result was brought about in the Rootstock of the Race, which
it carried with it into India. Here He worked by melody, not by repetition of
similar sounds; and the rousing of each etheric centre had its own melody,
stirring it into activity. He showed His disciples living pictures, created by
music, and in the Greek Mysteries this was wrought in the same way, the
tradition coming down from Him. And He taught that Sound was in all things, and
that if man would harmonize himself, then would the Divine Harmony manifest
through him, and make all Nature glad. Thus He went through Hellas singing, and
choosing here and there one who would follow
Him, and singing also for the people in other ways, weaving over Greece a
network of music, which should make her children beautiful and feed the
artistic genius of her land.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, p. 316 ff.)
This wonderful
tradition of the Mysteries of Orpheus was handed down for thousands of years
until in classical times we find, on the one hand the Orphic Schools, of which
that of Pythagoras was a splendid offshoot, and on the other the greatest of
all the Greek Mysteries, those of Eleusis, which preserved much of the ancient
teaching in a ceremonial form. A relic of the tradition of Orpheus is found in
the fact that the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries was always chosen from
the sacred family of the Eumolpidae, the descendants of the fabled Eumolpus,
whose name meant the sweet singer; and one of the most important qualifications
for the office was the possession of a beautiful and resonant voice, with which
the sacred chants might be correctly intoned.* (*Les Mysteres d'Eleusis. Paul
Foucart. Paris, 1914, p. 170.)
THE GODS OF GREECE
The Greek idea of
worship was very different from our modern conceptions. It must not be
supposed that any of the educated Greeks believed in the mythology of their
religion as literal fact. Men sometimes wonder how it was possible for great
nations like Rome or Greece to remain satisfied with what we commonly call
their religion - a chaos of unseemly myths, many of them not even decent,
describing gods and goddesses who were distinctly human in their actions and
passions, and were constantly quarrelling amongst themselves. The truth is that
nobody was satisfied with it, and it never was at all what we mean by a
religion, though it was no doubt taken literally by some ignorant people. All
cultured and thinking men took up the study of one or other of the systems of
philosophy, and in many cases they were also initiates of the school of the
Mysteries; it was this higher teaching that really moulded their lives, and
took for them the place of what we call religion - unless, indeed, they were
frankly agnostic, as are so many cultured men now. Some of these weird myths,
however, were explained in the Mysteries and were seen to enshrine a hidden
teaching relating to the life of the soul.
Nevertheless many
of the gods of Greece were real personages, who played their parts in the lives
of the people, and were channels to them of the divine blessing. The chief
aspect of the outer religion of Greece was the cult of the beautiful. It was
known in Greece that every true work of art radiated an atmosphere of joy and
beauty; therefore the Greeks surrounded themselves and their worship with every
kind of lovely thing. They knew that the gods manifested themselves through
beauty, were aspects of and channels for the One Beauty; and thus they gathered
streams of the divine influence around them and so outpoured blessing upon the
world. The gods of Greece were not the same as those reverenced in Egypt; they
represented somewhat different aspects of the one eternal God in forms suited
to the development of the Celtic sub-race, which was essentially an artistic,
as the Egyptians had been a scientific people. As students of the occult side
of religion are aware, each sub-race has its own especial presentation of truth,
its own divine forms through whom worship is offered to the Supreme; and the
type of religion is formulated by the World Teacher Himself in accordance with
the development and culture which are to be the distinguishing characteristic
of that race and its contribution to the world-plan of evolution. In Greece, as
in Egypt, there was a multiplicity of these divine forms, some of them
represented and ensouled by great Angels, who may be compared to some extent to
those adored in Christian lands - S. Michael, S. Gabriel, S. Raphael and
others. The gods of Greece were no less real than these great ones, although
they belonged to an entirely different type, resembling rather the presiding
Angels of the various countries than the Rulers of the nine orders of the
Angelic hosts.
Pallas Athene, the
grey-eyed goddess of wisdom, was a magnificent and splendid Being, who
practically governed Athens in the old days through her devotees. Her influence
was enormously stimulating, but she was not so much an embodiment of compassion
or of love, as is the Blessed Virgin Mary, but rather of efficiency and of that
perfect accuracy of form that is the essence of all true art. Much of the
wonderful art of Greece was inspired directly by her; and to satisfy her it had
to be the very highest and truest and most accurate. She could not tolerate a
single line misplaced, even in the smallest thing. There was something of
polished steel about Athene; she was cold and keen like a rapier, tremendously
powerful, keeping the people up to the highest, the noblest, the purest, the
most beautiful; and yet less for the sake of an abstract love of beauty than
because it would have been a disgrace to be otherwise than beautiful. There was
practically no emotion connected with Pallas Athene; we had an intellectual
appreciation of her greatness, an intense devotion along mental lines, a
splendid enthusiasm in following her; but we should not have ventured upon
anything like personal affection. She kept Athens in perfect order, directing
it, governing it, brooding over its people with her wonderful inspiration; and
she watched the development of her city with the closest interest, determined
that it should be ahead of Sparta and Corinth and the other cities of Greece.
Hera was a real
personage likewise, but very different from Pallas Athene. She was one of the
many incarnations or forms of the feminine aspect of the First Ray, and was
thought of as the Queen of Heaven; she corresponds most closely to the Indian
goddess Parvati, the shakti or power of Shiva, imaged as His consort, as Hera
was the consort of Zeus.
330Dionysus was
the Logos Himself, just as Osiris had been in Egypt, though in a somewhat
different aspect; and the legend of His death and resurrection corresponded
closely with that of Osiris, and was taught with the same signification in the
Mysteries of Greece. Phoebus Apollo, the God of the Sun and of music, whose
symbol was the lyre, seems originally to have been Orpheus; so that in
venerating him the Greeks in reality offered their love to the great World
Teacher. Demeter and her daughter Persephone or Kore were especially reverenced
at Eleusis. These two deities were personifications of the great forces of
nature, the first of the brooding motherhood of the earth, and the second of that
creative life which makes the earth to flourish and blossom with corn and
flowers and fruit, and then withdraws once more at the onset of winter into a
kind of hibernation - a hidden life within, only to burst out again as though
in a new incarnation under the influence of spring. Demeter appears to
correspond with Uma, the Great Mother, still venerated in India.
Aphrodite, the
goddess of Love - "immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne," as
Sappho calls her - represented the feminine aspect of the Deity as the divine
compassion; she was called the "foam-born" because she was mystically
supposed to have risen from the waters of the ocean. Swinburne describes her in
magnificent lines:
Her deep hair heavily
laden with the odour and colour of
flowers,
White rose of the
rose-white water, a silver splendour, a
Flame .
who, at her mystic
birth,
Came flushed from
the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her
foot on the sea.
And the wonderful
waters knew her, the winds and the
340viewless ways,
And the roses grew
rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of
the bays.
This beautiful
symbolism of her name refers to the form side of the Deity, the root of matter
- called the "deep sea", or the "virgin sea" - which is
impregnated with the divine life and beauty, and so gives birth to the
loveliest of forms. The title "foam-born" is particularly appropriate
when we consider that all forms are built up of aggregations of bubbles blown
in the "deep sea", the aether of space. All this was explained to the
initiates of the Mysteries. The same mystical idea lies in the title of Our
Lady Mary, "Star of the Sea"; although she embodies in herself a
fuller manifestation of the divine love in the perfection of eternal motherhood,
and indeed unites in her person many Aspects of the Deity that were divided in
Greece. There were, however, two sides of the cult of Aphrodite. The higher
side was embodied in Aphrodite Ouranios, the heavenly Aphrodite, who was indeed
"the Mother of fair love"; but there was a lower aspect of her
worship as Aphrodite Pandemos, the earthly, common love, which leads to much
evil and base desire, unworthy of the name love; and this aspect was the most
prominent in the days when the old religion had become outworn and corrupt.
Aphrodite corresponds to some extent with Lakshmi in India.
The gods were
connected with the Mysteries, and worked with and through their faithful
followers; but even in the Mysteries there was less of devotion and more of
intellectual appreciation than in our religion to-day. In studying different
branches of the Mysteries as worked in different lands we can but give certain
analogies - we cannot hope to make exact comparisons; and the difficulty is
still greater when we try to compare the ancient with the modern faiths - their
whole outlook was so different from ours.
THE OFFICIALS
The control of the
Eleusinian Mysteries in classical times lay in the hands of two families: the
Eumolpidae and the Keryces or heralds, who were also connected with the worship
of the Pythian Apollo at Delphi. Most of the officers were chosen from these
two families, although there were also important civil representatives of the
Athenian State who were responsible for the public ceremonial of the Mysteries
as well as for the control of finance.
The chief officer
was the hierophant, chosen for life by lot from the Eumolpidae. He alone had
the guardianship of the Hallows (Hiera), those sacred treasures which were so
carefully preserved at Eleusis and played so great a part in the ceremonial
magic of the Mysteries. He was invariably a man of advanced age and
distinguished position, and in his hands lay the supreme control over the
secret ceremonial.
Next to him in
rank stood the Dadouchos, the bearer of the double torch, chosen for life from
the family of the Keryces. Both these officials had houses in the sacred
enclosure at Eleusis, into which only initiates might enter; but while the
hierophant remained in almost entire seclusion, the Dadouchos often took a
prominent part in public affairs. A third official was the Hieroceryx, or
sacred herald, who also was chosen for life from the family of Keryces; one of
his duties was to make the solemn proclamation to the Mystae before their
initiation into the Greater Mysteries, to preserve silence upon sacred matters.
A fourth official was the Priest of the Altar, chosen also from the Keryces,
who in later times was responsible for the sacrifices. In the great days of the
Mysteries animal sacrifices were never offered, but, as in all religious
systems, a time came when the tradition had become formalized and much of the
inner knowledge had been withdrawn. It was then that certain teachings upon the
meaning of sacrifice and its place in the spiritual life were distorted and
materialized into the cruel superstition that it was necessary to sacrifice
animals to the Diety.
There were also
two women hierophants, dedicated to the two goddesses who presided over the
Mysteries, Demeter and Kore; and in addition to them there was a priestess of
Demeter, who appears to have been closely connected with certain other rites of
the goddesses open only to women (Thesmophoria, Haloa), as well as with
the Mysteries of Eleusis. A number of
minor officials also took part in the ceremonial. As in Egypt, women were
admitted to the Mysteries on equal terms with men, and no distinction was made
between the sexes save in the matter of office. The instruction of the
candidates was placed in the hands of the Mystagogues, who taught under the
supervision of the hierophant and prepared the initiates for the celebration
of the Mysteries, communicating to them certain formulae which would be
required in the course of the ceremonial. An enclosed order of priestesses
lived in retreat at Eleusis, vowed to celibacy and dedicated to the higher
life. It seems probable that these are the "bees" of whom Porphyry
and various grammarians speak.* (*Les Mysteres d'Eleusis. Foucart, Ch. VI and
VIII, passim.)
350THE LESSER
MYSTERIES
The Eleusinian
Mysteries were divided into two degrees, the Lesser and the Greater. We see no
trace of the tri-gradal system suggested by some scholars, although there were
special ceremonies for the installation of the principal officers. The Lesser
Mysteries were celebrated in the Temple of Demeter and Kore at Agrae, near
Athens, in the month of March. In them teaching was given upon the life after
death in the intermediate or astral world, just as in the Lesser Mysteries of
Egypt, and in this sense it is possible to compare the Lesser Mysteries with
our Masonic 1°, although the details of the ceremonial do not exactly
correspond. The ceremony was conducted by the hierophant of Eleusis, assisted
by his various officers; and the initiates of this degree were called mystae.
The ceremonies
opened with a preliminary purification or baptism in the waters of the Ilissus,
during which certain ritual formulae were recited; they were continued in the
secrecy of the temple, in which representations of the astral world were shown
to the candidate, and instruction given upon the results of certain courses of
action in the life after death. In earlier days when the hierophant directing
the studies described the effect of some particular vice or crime, he used his
occult power to materialize some good example of the fate which his words
portrayed, in some cases, it is stated, enabling the sufferer to speak and
explain the condition in which he found himself as the outcome of his neglect
while on earth of the eternal laws under which the worlds are governed.
Sometimes, instead of this, a vivid image of the state of some victim of his
own folly would be materialized for the instruction of the neophytes.
In the days of the
decadence, just as in Egypt, there remained no hierophant who possessed the
power to produce these occult illustrations, and consequently their place was
taken by actors dressed to represent the sufferers, and in some cases by
ghostly images projected by means of
concave mirrors - or even by cleverly executed statuary or mechanical figures.
Of course it was perfectly understood by all concerned that these were only
representations, and no one was ever led to suppose that they were original
cases. Certain of our ecclesiastical writers, however, failed to realize this,
and some of them spent much time and ingenuity in "exposing"
deceptions which never deceived anyone, least of all those who were specially
concerned with them. Besides this teaching upon the exact results in astral
life of physical thought and action, much instruction was given in cosmogony,
and the evolution of man on this earth was fully explained, again with the aid
of illustrative scenes and figures, produced at first by materialization, but
later imitated in various ways.
The initiates of
the Mysteries had a number of proverbs and aphorisms peculiar to themselves.
"Death is life, and life is death" was a saying which will need no
interpretation for the student of the inner side of life, who comprehends; at
least to some extent, how infinitely more real and vivid is life on any other
plane than this imprisonment in the flesh. "Whosoever pursues realities
during this life will pursue them after death; whosoever pursues unrealities
during this life will pursue them also after death," was another statement
entirely in line with the facts of post-mortem existence, and it emphasizes
the great truth upon which we so often find it necessary to insist, that death
in no way changes the real man, but that his disposition and his mode of
thought remain exactly what they were before.
The myths of the
exoteric religion of the country were taken up and studied in the Eleusinian
Mysteries, as in the Mysteries of Egypt. Among those relating to the life after
death was that of Tantalus, who was condemned to suffer perpetual thirst in
Hades: water surrounded him on all sides, but receded from him whenever he
attempted to drink; over his head hung branches of fruit which receded in like
manner when he stretched out his hand to touch them. This was interpreted to mean
that everyone who dies full of sensual desire of any kind finds himself after death still full of desire, but
unable to gratify it.
Another story was
that of Sisyphus, who was condemned always to roll uphill a huge block of
marble, which as soon as it reached the top rolled down again. That represents
the condition after death of a man full of personal ambition, who has spent his
life in making plans for selfish ends. In the other world he goes on making
plans and working them out, but always finds at the point of completion that
they are nothing but a dream. The liver of Tityus was ceaselessly devoured by
vultures. This was symbolical of the raging desire that tears at a man until it
is burnt out by suffering. In many such ways desire is purified and the man is
able to pass onwards to the life of the heaven-world, which was the subject of
instruction in the Greater Mysteries.
Within the Lesser
Mysteries, just as in the Mysteries of Egypt, there existed an inner school for
the training of specially selected candidates. These were taught to awaken the
senses of the astral plane, so that the teaching given in the Mysteries could
be verified by them at first hand. As in Egypt, the severe tests of courage
were applied only to the small proportion of those who entered the Mysteries
who intended to take up positive occult training, and become active workers on
the astral and higher planes. Tens of thousands of people were initiated
without them. One classical author mentions a gathering of thirty thousand
initiates. All serious-minded people gravitated towards these Mysteries, much
as the better class of young men and women of our day go to the great
Universities, and in addition many were interested in one or other of the
systems of philosophy.
This inner school
was kept secret, so that none even of the initiates knew of its existence until
actually received into it. The dress of the mystae was the dappled fawn-skin
(Nebris),* (*Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme. Par M. le Baron de
Sainte-Croix. Ed., Paris, . Tome I, p. .) a fitting emblem of the uncontrolled
astral body, which in this 1° had to be trained and brought into subjection by
the will. This dress corresponded with the leopard-skin worn by the Egyptian
priests, and the tiger or antelope skin so often used by the Eastern Yogis.
THE GREATER
MYSTERIES
360The Greater
Mysteries were held at Eleusis in the month of September (Boedromion), and in
connection with their celebration all Greece went into holiday, and splendid
public processions took place, in which the whole populace, both initiates and
non-initiates, joined. These public processions have been described in detail
by contemporary writers; but beyond these exoteric descriptions nothing of the
Greater Mysteries is known to the outer world save through a few obscure hints.
On the 13th Boedromion the young men gathered at Eleusis to form the escort of
the solemn procession to Athens, which was distant from Eleusis some twelve
miles. On the 14th the Hallows (Hiera) were solemnly escorted to the great
city, accompanied by the hierophant and his officers, the members of the
priestly families, the college of priestesses and the retinue of the Eleusinian
temple. The Hallows were treated with the deepest reverence; they were conveyed
in great wicker baskets secured with bands of purple wool, and placed upon a
ceremonial car. Only the hierophant and his ministers were allowed to handle
them, and none but initiates might even see them, under pain of death. During
the rest of the year they remained in a shrine or chapel (Anactoron) in the
temple at Eleusis, and were guarded with the utmost care and awe, as being of
divine origin.
When the
procession reached the outskirts of the city of Athens, the Hallows were met by
the magistrates and people, and were escorted with all magnificence and pomp to
the Eleusinion at the foot of the Acropolis. Like the mother temple at Eleusis,
this was surrounded by high walls, and no one but the initiates was ever
allowed to enter. On the 15th day of the month, the day of the full moon, the
mystae who were to be advanced to the Greater Mysteries assembled, and the
solemn proclamation was made, enumerating those to whom access to the Mysteries
was forbidden . "Whoso hath unclean hands . whoso hath an unintelligible
voice".* (*Libanius, quoted Foucart. op. cit., p. .) This latter qualification
has been taken to mean that only Greek-speaking people could be admitted to the
Mysteries; but M. Foucart suggests the more probable explanation that the
voice must be free from impediment in order that the sacred formulae might be
pronounced correctly; and he compares this qualification to the Egyptian title
Maat-heru, which meant not only "true of voice" but one who is able
to wield the occult powers of sound without mistake.* (*Ibid., p. .) When we
remember the tradition of Orpheus and realize how great a part sound played in
the Greek Mysteries, we may understand that this conjecture is not without
foundation.
On the 16th day of
the month the mystae took a ceremonial bath of purification in the sea; on the
17th and 18th various public processions took place in Athens; while the
mystae remained secluded in the temple, receiving instruction and preparing
themselves by meditation for their initiation into the Greater Mysteries. On
the 19th the great procession of the initiates to Eleusis was formed, the
Hallows were carried back to their ancient resting-place with the fullest
possible pomp and splendour, and the candidates and Brn. marched in triumph to
the temple of initiation accompanied by vast crowds of people.
First came the car
of Iacchos, bearing the statue of "the fair young God", who was one
of the forms of Dionysus, the "Blazing Star of nocturnal Initiation"
as Aristophanes calls him;* (*Aristophanes. Frogs, .) next marched the young
men, myrtle-crowned, with shields and lances glittering in the sunlight, whose
duty and privilege it was to escort the sacred Hallows, borne aloft upon the
ceremonial car in the great wicker baskets, still bound with purple wool; after
them came the hierophant and his officers, dressed in their purple robes and
wearing myrtle crowns, followed by the mystae in charge of the mystagogues.
After them marched the vast company of initiates and people, arranged according
to their tribes and demes, and preceded by the civil magistrates and the
council of the five hundred; and the whole splendid throng was followed by a
train of baggage-animals carrying bedding and provisions for the few days'
sojourn at Eleusis.
The procession
arrived at the sacred village after nightfall, and glowed like a river of fire
in the blazing light of the torches carried by all the people; and after a
tremendous ovation the Hallows were carried into the sacred enclosure by the
hierophant, who placed them once more in the secret shrine within the hall of
initiation (Telesterion). The next two days, during which the actual ceremonial
instruction took place, were spent by the initiates within the enclosing walls
of the temple, and the whole glorious celebration concluded with a festal assembly held outside the temple walls, in
which all the citizens took part, afterwards returning quietly to their homes.*
(*Les Mysteres d'Eleusis. Ch. XI and XII, passim.)
In the Greater
Mysteries the teaching upon the life after death was extended to the
heaven-world; they thus corresponded to some extent to our 2°. The initiates
were named epoptae, and their ceremonial garment was no longer a fawn-skin, but
a golden fleece - whence, naturally, the whole myth of Jason and his
companions. This symbolized the mental body, and the power definitely to
function in it. Those who have seen the splendid radiance of all which pertains
to that mental plane, who have noticed the innumerable vortices produced by the
ceaseless emission and impact of thought-forms, who remember that a brilliant
yellow is especially the colour which manifests intellectual activity, will
acknowledge that this was no inapt representation.
In this class, as
in the lower one, there were two types - those who could be taught to use the
mental body, and to form round it the strong temporary vehicle of astral matter
which has sometimes been called the mayavi rupa - and the far greater majority
who were not yet prepared for this development, but could nevertheless be
instructed with regard to the mental plane and the powers and faculties
appropriate to it. As in the Lesser Mysteries men learned the exact result in
the intermediate world after death of certain actions and modes of life on the
physical plane, so in the Greater Mysteries they learnt how causes generated in
this lower existence worked out in the heaven-world. In the Lesser the
necessity and the method of the control of desires, passions and emotions was
made clear; in the Greater the same teaching was given with regard to the
control of mind.
Further teaching
upon cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis was also continued. In the Greater
Mysteries instead of being instructed only as to the broad outlines of
evolution by reincarnation (which does not appear to have been clearly taught
in the outer religion), and the previous races of mankind, the initiates now
received a description of the whole scheme as we have it to-day, including the
seven great chains of worlds and their positions in the solar system as a
whole. Their terms were different from ours, but the instruction was in essence
the same; where we speak of successive life-waves and outpourings, they spoke
of aeons and emanations, but there is no doubt that they were fully in touch
with the facts, and that they represented them to their pupils in wonderful
visions of cosmic processes and their terrestrial analogies.
Just as in the
case of the after-death states, these representations were at first produced by
occult methods; and later, when these failed them, by mechanical and pictorial
means, the results of which were greatly inferior. Illustrations of the
development of the human embryo, shown by picture or model in the same way as
we might show some of them by means of a microscope, were employed to teach by
the law of correspondences the truth of cosmic evolution. We may remember how
Madame Blavatsky adopted in The Secret Doctrine a similar method of
illustrating the same evolutionary processes.* (*Op. cit., Vol. iii, p. .) It
is probable that a misunderstanding of the representation of some of these
processes of reproduction was distorted into an idea of indecency, and so the
seed was sown from which sprang later the false and foolish accusations of the
ignorant and bigoted Christians.
The culmination of
the ceremonial of the Greater Mysteries was the exposition of an ear of corn.
Of this Hippolytus speaks:
370The Athenians,
while initiating people into the Eleusinian Rites, likewise display to those
who are being admitted to the highest grade at these Mysteries, the mighty,
marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest
mystic truths: I allude to an ear of corn in silence reaped. This ear of corn
is also considered among the Athenians to constitute the perfect and enormous
illumination that has descended from the unportrayable One, just as the
hierophant himself declares.* (*Hippolytus. Refutation of All Heresies, Bk. V,
iii (Ante-Nicene Library Ed.))
This symbol referred
to the divine life of God, ever-changing, ever-renewed, buried in the earth of
the lower planes, only to rise in other forms to a fuller and more abundant
life, passing from manifestation to manifestation without end. This was
explained by the hierophant to the initiates, and the simplicity of the symbol
and the beauty and profundity of the meaning underlying it formed a fitting
climax to a wonderful ceremony.
THE MYTHS OF THE
GREATER MYSTERIES
The meaning of
various myths was explained in detail in the instruction given to the
initiates. The legend of Persephone or Proserpine (Kore) is clearly an occult
parable of the descent of the soul into matter. If we remember how the story
tells us that Proserpine was carried away while she was plucking the flower of
the narcissus, at once we have a suggestion of connection with that other myth
of the soul's life. Narcissus is represented to have been a young man of
extraordinary beauty who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of
water, and was so much attracted by it that he fell into the pool and was
drowned, and was afterwards changed by the gods into a beautiful flower. It was
taught that the soul was not originally immersed in matter, and need not have
been so, but for the fact that she was attracted by the image of herself in the
lower conditions of matter, symbolized by water. Beguiled by this reflection, she identifies
herself with the lower personality, and is for the time sunk altogether in
matter; yet nevertheless the divine seed remains, and presently she springs up
again as a flower. It was while Proserpine was stooping to Narcissus that she
was seized and carried off by Desire, who is the king of the lower world; and
although she was rescued from complete captivity by the effort of her mother,
yet after that she had to spend her life half in the lower world, and half in
that above, that is to say, partly in incarnation and partly out of it.
The Minotaur,
which was slain by Theseus, was the personality in man, "half animal and
half man". Theseus typifies the higher self, who has been gradually
developing and gathering strength until at last he can wield the sword of his
divine father, the Spirit. Guided through the labyrinth of illusion which
constitutes these lower planes by the
thread of occult knowledge given him by Ariadne (who represents
intuition), the higher self is enabled to slay the lower and escape safely from
the web of illusion; yet there still remains for him the danger that,
developing intellectual pride, he may neglect intuition, even as Theseus
neglected Ariadne, and so failed for the time to reach his highest
possibilities. The legend of the slaying of Bacchus by the Titans, the tearing
of his body into fragments and his resurrection from the dead, was also taught,
with the same interpretation as that given to the legend of Osiris in the
Mysteries of Egypt - the descent of the One to become the many, and the reunion
of the many in the One through suffering and sacrifice.
THE MAGIC OF THE
GREATER MYSTERIES
In the Eleusinian
Mysteries the initiates were brought into close communion with the Deity
through specially consecrated food and drink. Cups of highly-magnetized water
were given to them, and consecrated cakes were eaten during the ceremonies of
initiation. S. Clement of Alexandria gives us the formula or pass-word of the
Eleusinian Mysteries, which some have taken to refer to this sacrament:
"I fasted; I drank the draught; I took from the chest; having tasted, I
placed in the basket, and from the basket into the chest."* (*Clem, Alex.
Exhortation to the Greeks. Loeb. Ed., p. 43 (Lobeck.)) In many religions we find a similar method of
conveying the divine blessing to the people.
The Hallows
(Hiera) already mentioned were physical objects extremely highly magnetized,
through which much of the magical side of the Mysteries was performed. They
were the personal property of the priestly family of the Eumolpidae, being
handed down from generation to generation; and their solemn exposition and the
explanation of the symbolical teaching connected with them was one of the
features of the Eleusinian ritual.* (*Foucart. Op. cit., p. 150.)
One of these was
the caduceus, the rod of power, surrounded by the twisting serpents and
surmounted by the pine-cone. It was the same as the thyrsus; and was said to be
hollow and to be filled with fire. In India it is a stick of bamboo with seven
knots in it, which represents the spinal column with its seven centres or
chakras. When a candidate had been initiated, he was often described as one who
had been touched with the thyrsus, showing that it was not a mere emblem, but
had also a practical use. It also indicated the spinal cord, ending in the
medulla, while the serpents were symbolical of the two channels called in
Eastern terminology Ida and Pingala; and the fire enclosed within it was the
serpent-fire which in Sanskrit is called kundalini. It was laid by the
hierophant against the back of the candidate, and thus used as a strong
magnetic instrument in order to awaken the forces latent within him, and to
free the astral body from the physical, so that the candidate might pass in
full consciousness to the higher planes. To help him in the efforts that lay
before him the priest in this way gave the aspirant some of his own magnetism.
This rod of power was of the greatest importance, and we can understand why it
was regarded with so much awe when we realize something of its occult potency.
There was also the
krater or cup, always associated with Dionysus, and emblematical of the causal
body of man, which has ever been symbolized by a cup filled with the wine of
the divine life and love. The tradition of this passed down through the ages
and became mingled with that of the Holy Grail, which played so great a part in
early mediaeval romance and legend.
Among the holy
symbols there were also highly-magnetized and richly jewelled statues, which
had been handed down from a remote past, and were the physical basis of certain
great forces invoked in the Mysteries; and a lyre, reputed to be the lyre of
Orpheus, on which certain melodies were played and to which the sacred chants
were sung. There were also the toys of Bacchus, with which he was playing when
he was seized by the Titans and torn to pieces - very remarkable toys, full of
significance. The dice with which he plays are the five Platonic solids, the
only regular polygons possible in geometry. They are given in a fixed series,
and this series agrees with the different planes of the solar system. Each of
them indicates, not the form of the atoms of the different planes, but the
lines along which the power works which surrounds those atoms. Those polygons
are the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron and the
icosahedron. If we put the point at one end and the sphere at the other we have
a set of seven figures, corresponding to the number of planes in our solar
system.
In some of the
older schools of philosophy it was said: "No one can enter who does not
know mathematics." That meant not what we now call mathematics, but that
science which embraces the knowledge of the higher planes, of their mutual
relations, and the way in which the whole is built by the will of God. When
Plato said: "God geometrizes," he stated a profound truth which
throws much light upon the methods and mysteries of evolution. Those forms are
not conceptions of the human brain; they are truths of the higher planes. We
have formed the habit of studying the books of Euclid, but we study them now
for themselves, and not as a guide to something higher. The old philosophers
pondered upon them because they led to the understanding of the true science of
life.
Another toy with
which Bacchus played was a top, the symbol of the whirling atom pictured in
Occult Chemistry. Yet another was a ball which represented the earth, that
particular part of the planetary chain to which the thought of the Logos is
specially directed at the moment. Also he played with a mirror. The mirror has
always been a symbol of the astral light, in which the archetypal ideas are reflected
and then materialized. Thus each of those toys indicates an essential part in
the evolution of a solar system.
THE HIDDEN
MYSTERIES
The two divisions
of the lesser and greater mysteries above-mentioned were generally known, but
it was not known that there was always, behind and above those, the greater
mystery of the Path of Holiness, the steps of which are the five great
Initiations already mentioned. The very existence of the possibility of that
future advancement was not certainly known even by the initiates of the
Greater Mysteries until they were actually fit to receive the mystic summons
from within. If one thinks of the conditions of that time one can readily
understand the reason for that secrecy. The Roman Emperors, for example, knew
of the existence of the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries, and insisted upon
being initiated into them. We know from history that many of the Emperors were
hardly of a character to be allowed to play a leading role in a religious body,
but it would have been very difficult for the hierophants of the Mysteries to
refuse entrance to an Emperor of Rome. As was once said: "One cannot argue
with the, master of thirty legions." Many of the Emperors would certainly
have killed anyone who stood in the way of anything they wished; so the
existence of the true Mysteries was not made public; and no one knew of them
until he was deemed, by those who could judge, worthy to be admitted into them.
The teaching of these higher degrees is still open to the worthy, and to the
worthy alone; but certain conditions must be fulfilled, as I have explained in
The Masters and the Path.
Thus the Mysteries
of Eleusis corresponded closely with those of Egypt, though they differed in
detail; and both these systems led their initiates, when properly prepared, to
that Wisdom of God which was "before the beginning of the world". We
in Masonry do not inherit the Eleusinian succession directly, although
something of its inspiration and influence was transmitted to certain of the
mystic schools of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless our rites have the same
purpose, symbolize the same invisible worlds, and are intended to prepare
candidates for the same august reality that lies behind all true systems of the
Mysteries alike.
THE SCHOOL OF
PYTHAGORAS
The great
philosopher Pythagoras was born in Samos about 582 B.C., and was the founder of
the school that bore his name and studied his teachings in Greece, Italy, Egypt
and Asia Minor. Mr. G. R. S. Mead says of the Pythagorean school:
The finest
characters among women with which ancient Greece presents us were formed in the
School of Pythagoras, and the same is true of the men. The authors of antiquity
are agreed that this discipline had succeeded in producing the highest examples
not only of the purest chastity and sentiment; but also a simplicity of
manners, a delicacy and a taste for serious pursuits which was unparalleled.*
(*Orpheus: G.R.S. Mead, p. 265, .)
Pythagoras
travelled through many of the countries of the Mediterranean basin, studying
for some years in Egypt, where he was initiated at Sais. He was also initiated
into the Eleusinian, Kabeiric and Chaldaean Mysteries, and thus was thoroughly
versed in all the hidden knowledge of the ancient world. In addition to his
travels round the shores of the Mediterranean, Pythagoras journeyed to India,
where he met the Lord Buddha and became one of His disciples. He spent some
years in India, and it is reported that he had the high honour of an interview
with the next World Teacher, the holy Child Shri Krishna, who blessed him and
sent him back to Europe to found his system of philosophy and of esoteric
instruction. Thus in the Pythagorean school many lines of tradition met
together, and were blended into a comprehensive teaching upon the hidden side
of life.
390There is a
curious old writing called the Leyland-Locke MS., which was at one time in the
Bodleian Library, but recent investigators have been unable to trace it. Its
genuineness has been disputed by some authorities, "but," says Bro.
Ward, "in my opinion on quite inadequate grounds."* (*An Outline
History of Freemasonry, by J.S.M. Ward, p. .) Its reputed date is 1436, and it
is written in the quaint old English of the period, and in the form of question
and answer. In the part referring to Freemasonry it asks where it began, and
the answer is that it began with the first men of the East, who were before the
first men of the West. Then it asks who brought it to the West and the answer
is: "The Venetians, etc."
It then continues:
How comede ytt
(Freemasonry) yn Engelonde?
Peter Gower, a
Grecian, journeyed for kunnynge yn Egypte and yn Syria, and yn everyche londe
whereat the Venetians hadde plauntedde Maconrye, and wynnynge entraunce yn al
Lodges of Maconnes, he learned muche, and retournedde and worked yn Grecia
Magna wachsynge and becommynge a myghtye wysacre and gratelyche renowned, and
here he framed a grate Lodge at Groton, and maked many Maconnes, some whereoffe
dyd journeye yn Fraunce, and maked manye Maconnes wherefromme, yn process of
tyme, the arte passed yn Engelonde.
This is said to
have much puzzled John Locke until he realized that Peter Gower was Pitagore -
the French pronunciation of Pythagoras, that Groton was Crotona, and the
Venetians the Phoenicians.
No wonder that
Mackey says: "It is not singular that the old Masons should have called
Pythagoras their 'ancient friend and brother'." About 529 B.C. Pythagoras
settled in Crotona in the south of Italy, remaining there until he was forced
by political troubles to remove to Metapontum. At Crotona he became the centre
of a widespread and influential organization, a religious brotherhood which
extended over all the Greek-speaking world. "Number is great and perfect
and omnipotent, and the principle and guide of divine and human life,"
said Philolaus, and the sentence expresses the keynote of the Pythagorean
system. Number is order and limitation, and alone makes a cosmos possible. By
numbers nature moves, and to understand numbers is to be the master of nature.
Hence the Pythagorean sought to understand the nature of numbers, and to trace
their working in the universe, whether in the vast ordered movements in the
heavens, or in the arrangements of the earth. Hence also his devotion to
mathematics, a science which (as far as Europe is concerned) may almost be said
to have been created by Pythagoras, so much did he add to it and systematize
it; he found it but a number of scattered and
unrelated facts, and left it a science. Metempsychosis or reincarnation
was an essential part of the Pythagorean teaching; the purification of the
soul being thus accomplished by repeated descents into matter and withdrawals
into the invisible worlds, in order to transmute experience into faculty.
THE THREE DEGREES
The Pythagorean
schools worked in close association with the teaching of the Mysteries, but
without the ceremonies; they gave a philosophical exposition of the same great
facts of the inner worlds. In those schools the pupils were divided into three
degrees which corresponded almost exactly with those of the early Christians,
who called them the stages of purification, illumination and perfection
respectively - the last one including what S. Clement of Alexandria calls the
"scientific knowledge of God". In the Pythagorean scheme the first
degree was that of the akoustikoi or hearers, who took no part in the discussions
or addresses, but kept absolute silence in the meetings for two years, and
devoted themselves to listening and learning.
At the end of that
time, if otherwise satisfactory, the students were eligible for the second
degree, that of the mathematikoi. The mathematics which they learnt were not,
however, confined to what we now mean by that term. We study this science as an
end in itself, but for them it was only a preparation for something much wider,
higher and more practical. Geometry, as we now know it, was taught in the outer
world in ordinary life as a preparation; but inside these great schools the
subject was carried much farther, to the study and comprehension of the fourth
dimension, and the laws and properties of higher space. It can be fully
understood only if we take it thus as a whole, not in mere fragments, and as an
introduction to higher development. It leads a man upwards towards the
understanding of all the octaves of vibrations, as to vast areas of which
science knows nothing as yet, towards the intricate occult relations of
numbers, colours and sounds, the various three-dimensional sections of the
mighty cone of space, and the true shape of the universe. There is a vast
amount to be gained from the study of mathematics by those who know how to take
it up in the right way; it helps us to see how the worlds are made.
The mathematikoi
brought geometry, mathematics and music into relation with one another, and
worked out the correspondences between them, which are very remarkable.
Everyone who knows anything about music is aware that there is a fixed
proportion between the lengths of the strings which produce certain tones. A
piano can be tuned according to a certain system of fifths, and the relation
of the different tones to one another can be expressed by the number of
vibrations of each tone; so a harmonious chord can be stated mathematically.
This was first discovered simply by experiment; later the mathematicians found
out what the proportions should be, and again by experiment they were found to
be exact. But the peculiarity is that the numbers which produce a harmonious
chord have the same relation to one another as that which exists between
certain parts of the Platonic solids. Our scale, so different from the old
Greek scale, which consisted of five tones, can still be deduced from the
proportions of those five Platonic figures, which were studied over two
thousand years ago in Greece. One might think that there cannot be much
relation between mathematics and music, but we see by this that they are both
parts of one great whole.
400The third
degree of the Pythagoreans was that of the physikoi - not physicists in our
modern sense of the word, but students of the true inner life, who learnt how
to distinguish the divine life under all its disguises, and so were able to
comprehend the course of its evolution. The life exacted from all these pupils
was of the most exalted purity. Mackey gives the following account of the
school at Crotona:
40The disciples of
this school wore the simplest kind of clothing, and, having on their entrance
surrendered all their possessions to the common fund, they submitted for three*
(*This should be two only.) years to voluntary poverty, during which time they
were also compelled to a rigorous silence. The scholars were divided into
Exoterics and Esoterics. This distinction was borrowed by Pythagoras from the
Egyptian priests, who practised a similar mode of instruction. The exoteric
scholars were those who attended the public assemblies, where general ethical
instructions were delivered by the sage. But only the esoterics constituted
the true school, and these alone Pythagoras called, says Iamblichus, his
companions and friends. Before admission to the privileges of the school, the
previous life and character of the candidate were rigidly scrutinized, and in
the preparatory initiation secrecy was enjoined by an oath, and the severest
trials of his fortitude and self-command were imposed. The brethren, about six
hundred in number, with their wives and children, resided in one large
building. Every morning the business and duties of the day were arranged, and
at night an account was rendered of the day's transactions. They arose before
day to pay their devotions to the sun, and recited verses from Homer, Hesiod,
or some other poet. Several hours were spent in study, after which there was an
interval before dinner, which was occupied in walking and in gymnastic
exercises. The meals consisted principally of bread and honey.
40Although we do
not find any direct connection between the School of Pythagoras and the degrees
of modern Masonry, yet the influence of Pythagoras upon our Mysteries was
profound, as Masons have always recognized. The tradition of the Pythagoreans
passed into the Neo-Platonic schools; and from thence much of the inner
teaching came into Christian hands, and formed the basis of many of those
schools of mystic instruction which enshrined in mediaeval times certain of the
secrets now preserved in the higher degrees of Masonry. There is a succession of ideas as well as of
sacramental power; and the school of Pythagoras may certainly be said to be one
of the links in the chain of Masonic philosophy, even though to-day the greater
part of that philosophy has faded from our rites. To Pythagoras is attributed
the discovery of the 47th proposition of Euclid, which now forms the jewel of
the I.P.M. in English Masonry, and is the basis not only of a great portion of
exoteric geometry but, in a mystical sense, of the whole system of the
Mysteries, and indeed of the universe itself. It is impossible exactly to
estimate the influence of any given line of tradition. We cannot say more than
that some of the Pythagorean teachings, probably transmitted along several
mutually-interacting lines of descent, became mingled with the Masonry of the
Middle Ages and formed part of the inner instruction that was associated with
the ceremonies handed down among the operative builders from Jewish sources.
These were preserved under binding pledges of secrecy, and emerged in
speculative Masonry after the Reformation, thus forming part of our present
Masonic system.
40OTHER GREEK MYSTERIES
40Another line of
tradition is that of the Mysteries of Dionysus (or as the Romans called him,
Bacchus), which approached more closely to the Egyptian scheme of initiation
than the Eleusinian rites. They were celebrated throughout Greece and Asia
Minor, but principally at Athens; they were carried to Rome, and afterwards
formed a link in the chain of Masonic descent. Their central legend deals with
the slaying of Dionysus by the Titans and his subsequent resurrection.
40The mysteries
commenced with the consecration of an egg, symbolizing the mundane egg from
which all things came. The candidate was crowned with myrtle, clothed in the
sacred robes, exhorted to have courage, and then led through dark caverns amid
the howling of wild beasts and other fearful noises, while flashes of lightning
revealed monstrous apparitions to his sight. After three days and nights of
this kind of experience, he was laid on a couch in a solitary cell; there was a
sudden crash of waters, typifying the deluge, and the murder of Dionysus was
enacted, his limbs being scattered on the waters. Then, amid lamentations,
commenced the search of Rhea for the remains of Dionysus, and the apartments
were filled with shrieks and groans, accompanied by the frantic dances of the
Corybantes. Suddenly the body was found, the scene changed to one of joy, and
the aspirant was released from his confinement. After that he descended into
the infernal regions, where he saw the sufferings of the wicked and the rewards
of the good, and afterwards became an epopt or seer - one who could look upon
the world from above, see it as a whole, and therefore understand it. Among the
followers of this Bacchic form of the Mysteries were the celebrated Dionysian
Artificers, a secret society, bound by the most rigid pledges never to reveal
their s . and p . w ., and employing emblems adopted from the building trade.
These wandering bands of workmen built temples all over Syria and Asia Minor, just
as the bands of Freemasons afterwards built churches in Europe. Bro. Ward
writes of them:
40They appear to
have reached Asia Minor from the south-east, and, according to Strabo, could be
traced through Syria and Phoenicia, via Persia and India. Apparently they
reached Phoenicia about fifty years before the building of K.S.'s temple, and
it is their presence which alone explains how that temple came to be built.
Indeed, the Bible itself makes it abundantly clear that the temple was not
built by Jews, who at that time were an agricultural race, quite incapable of
undertaking the task of building such an elaborate edifice.
40From the same
source we learn that the chief architects and men came from Phoenicia, and
Phoenician letters have been found on what are believed to be the foundations
of the first temple . From Phoenicia they spread first into Asia Minor, and
thence into Greece, from which country Greek colonists no doubt in the course
of time carried members of the guild to Magna Grecia, which was the early name
for South Italy.* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, by Ward, p. .)
40It is said that
this cult of Dionysus survived up to 1908 in Thrace, in a slightly modified
form at Viza, and may still exist.* (*R. M. Dawkins, Journal of Hellenic
Studies, xxvi (1906), pp. 191-20.)
40In the same land
of Phoenicia, the mysteries of Adonis or Tammuz were celebrated at Byblos or
Gebal, where lived the Gibelim or Stone-squarers, deriving their name from that
of the town. The legend of these mysteries is an interesting combination of
those of Egypt and Eleusis, the death and resurrection of Adonis being
interwoven with a theme upon his exile and return for six months of the year,
which reminds us of the fate of Persephone.
4This cult appears
in many forms, some of them savage and sanguinary, evidently derived from the
dark and debased delusions of prehistoric and even cannibal tribes. Some hint
of these may be seen in the account given on p. 000.
The mysteries of
Attis and Cybele in Phrygia had many points in common with the last-named, the
death and resurrection of Attis being the central myth. Other mystery-cults
existed also, all teaching similar ideas. That of the Kabeiroi in Samothrace,
which was held in great honour in the ancient world, is thought by some
scholars to be the oldest of them all - a theory which is supported by the
barbarous names of the deities involved. But even these are myths of death and
resurrection, the god being in this case called Kasmillos.
It seems probable
that when Virgil, in the sixth book of the Aeneid, depicted the descent of
Aeneas into hell, he intended to give a representation of what happened in
some of these Mysteries.
The Mithraic
Mysteries
ZARATHUSTRA AND
MITHRAISM
THE Mysteries of
Mithra were in many ways similar to those of Greece, but they always had
certain characteristics which were especially their own, and the line of
succession which they transmitted was distinct from that of the three degrees
of Blue Masonry; some of the more important features of its ritual seem to have
passed over into the 18°. There was a strong military flavour about them, and
they demanded from their devotees a purity of life which was almost ascetic.
Just as the
Mysteries of Egypt and Greece arose respectively from the incarnations of the
World Teacher as Thoth and Orpheus, so did the Mithraic scheme arise from His
incarnation as the first Zarathustra about 29,700 B.C. in Persia. It taught of
Mithra, Captain of the hosts of the God of Light and Saviour of mankind.
MITHRAISM AMONG
THE ROMANS
It is said that
Mithraism was first transmitted to the Roman world during the first century
B.C. by the Cilician pirates captured by Pompey; but, as we have already seen,
it was before that time in the possession of the Essene communities in
Palestine. For nearly two centuries it attained no great importance in Rome,
and it was not until the end of the first century A.D. that it began to attract
serious attention. Towards the close of the second century, the cult had spread
rapidly through the army, the mercantile class and the slaves, all of which
classes were largely composed of Asiatics. It throve especially at the military
posts, and in the track of trade, where its monuments have been discovered in
greatest abundance. Some twenty of the Mithraic temples still remain, and they
show certain points of resemblance to our Masonic Lodges. The temple was
rectangular, with a raised platform at the east end, often apsidal in form;
continuous benches ran along its walls on the longer sides for the accommodation
of the Brn., and the ceiling was made to symbolize the firmament.
Jerome (Epist.
cvii) tells us that the system consisted of seven degrees: Corax, the Raven,
so-called not only because the raven was the servant of the sun in Mithraic
mythology, but because the raven can only imitate speech and not originate
ideas for himself;* (*Cf. the Akoustikoi of the Pytagoreans, and the fact that
the due-gard of the 1º shows that the E.A. must confine himself to what is
taught in the V.S.L.) Cryphius, the
Occult, a degree in the taking of which the mystic was perhaps hidden from
others in the sanctuary by a veil, the removal of which was a solemn
ceremonial; Miles, the Soldier, signifying the holy warfare against evil in
the service of the God; Leo, the Lion, symbolic of the element of fire, which
played so great a part in the Persian faith; Perses, the Persian, clad in
Asiatic costume, a reminiscence of the ancient origin of the religion;
Heliodromus, the Courier of the Sun, with whom Mithra was identified; and
Pater, the Father, a degree bringing the mystic among those who had the
general direction of the cult for the rest of their lives.
420It is not easy
to trace exact correspondences between these seven stages and our own degrees,
because of the difference between the systems. The Corax is fairly parallel
with the E.A., and the Cryphius and Miles with the F.C., the latter being
distinguished from the former by additional knowledge which may not inaptly be
compared with that of the Mark degree. These three classes together were
regarded to some extent as servitors; the next stage, Leo, was the first whose
members were called "participants" and admitted to the Mithraic
sacrament. We may consider the three stages of Leo, Perses and Heliodromus as divisions of the M.M. degree;
the first gave access to the full fellowship of the Mithraic brotherhood, the
second passed him who received it through a most impressive ceremony in the
course of which he was symbolically slain and raised to life in honour of
Mithra, and the third put him in possession of additional knowledge equivalent
to that which is supposed to be given to us in the Holy Royal Arch; for only
when he had that knowledge of the name and qualities of the deity was he fitted
to go forth as a messenger of the Sun to bear his strength and life through the
world. The Pater corresponded to our I.M., who alone can confer the various
degrees and pass on the succession to posterity.
THE MITHRAIC RITES
The Mithraic cult
was essentially a religion of soldiers, a veritable brotherhood of arms. Women
were never admitted to their rites of initiation, although it seems probable
that in earlier times there were separate degrees for them. The power flowing
through the rites gave especially courage and purity, and the demands upon the
candidates in both these respects were exceedingly high. There was an intensity
of brotherly feeling between the initiates of Mithra which is rarely realized
in our Lodges to-day; they were pledged to fight for the right, and they stood
shoulder to shoulder against all foes.
The Mithraic
sacrament consisted of bread and wine and salt, and was consecrated at a solemn
ceremony in the Mysteries, being linked to that aspect of the Deity which was
represented by Mithra, and intensely charged with force along the
characteristic lines of purity, courage and brotherhood, helping to bind the
brethren together into a body corporate as soldiers of Light and Truth. This
same Eucharist has been transmitted to us to-day through the Culdee line of
tradition, in the ceremonial of the Rose-Croix of Heredom; but the forces flowing
through it have been modified to some extent, so that instead of a Brotherhood
of Arms we have now a Brotherhood of Love. The power of love takes the place of
the military influence of courage, although the method of consecration in the
higher worlds is the same. This is due to a blending with the Egyptian line of
tradition.
The analogies
between Mithraism and Christianity are very close; they are well summarized
thus in the Encyclopedia Britannica:
The fraternal and
democratic spirit of the first communities, and their humble origin; the
identification of the object of adoration with light and the Sun; the legends
of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and the ark; the
representation in art of the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from the rock;
the use of bell and candle, holy water and the communion; the sanctification of
Sunday and of the 25th of December; the insistence on moral conduct, the emphasis placed upon
abstinence and self-control; the doctrine of heaven and hell, of primitive
revelation, of the mediation of the Logos emanating from the divine, the
atoning sacrifice, the constant warfare between good and evil and the final
triumph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, the
resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of the universe - these
are some of the resemblances . At their root lay a common Eastern origin rather
than any borrowing?* (*Ency. Brit. (11th Edn.), Art. Mithras.)
The Great Powers
behind evolution appear at one time to have thought seriously of making
Mithraism the religion of the fifth sub-race instead of the maimed Christianity
which had rejected its own gnosis and put aside its Mysteries. But the ideal of
Mithraic purity was so high that it would probably have been impossible for men
to follow it during the Dark Ages; and another very serious objection to the
system was that it absolutely excluded women. Mithraism was allowed therefore
to sink into the background and finally to pass out of sight of the outer
world. Nevertheless the ancient succession is still guarded and the rites are
preserved in the custody of the H.O.A.T.F.; so Mithraism may yet have its part
to play in the religious life of the future.
In addition to the
Mysteries of Mithra, there was an Atlantean tradition of the Mysteries - that
to which we have already referred as the Chaldaean line of succession. In the
days of its splendour the Chaldaean rituals put the initiate into relation with
the great Star-Angels who were adored in that mighty faith; and a relic of this
tradition is still found in the hidden side of certain of the degrees of the
rites of Memphis and of Mizraim. The Chaldaean method of seating the Principal
Officers of a Lodge is still preserved in Continental Masonry, and has passed
also into certain of the higher degrees.
THE ROMAN COLLEGIA
We may now return
to the main line of Masonic descent, that of the three Craft degrees. We have
already seen how the Jewish Mysteries handed down the essentials of our Masonic
rites; it remains for us to trace their transmission to our modern Lodges. The
next link in the chain is the Roman Collegia, in which the transition from
speculative to operative Masonry took place.
430We have seen
that the science of architecture was always closely connected with the
Mysteries, and that our Masonic Craft ritual when properly worked is designed
to build a superphysical temple of the Ionic order of architecture, which was
chosen because it is the vehicle of the special type of force which flows
through Craft Masonry.* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, p. 120.)
Other forms are
built by the higher degrees, belonging to different kinds of architecture,
according to the influences which are to be radiated through them; so we see
that we are in the presence of a science of spiritual building, of which
material architecture is but the reflection in the dense matter of the physical
plane. Each order of architecture expresses an idea and is the channel of
certain types of influence associated with that idea, attracting the attention
of certain kinds of Angels who work along the lines of that idea in the
invisible worlds. Each sub-race has its own characteristic type of architecture
as well as its own type of music, and these are often utilized by the Great
Ones behind in order to impress upon the people certain characteristics which
are necessary for their evolution.
The principles of
this inner science of building were taught in the ancient Mysteries, and the
temples of the different faiths were planned by the priests with full knowledge
of the hidden side of what they were doing; it was for this reason that
builders were always associated with temples and temple-worship, and the
secrets of building were carefully guarded as part of the teaching of the
Mysteries. Thus the confusion between speculative and operative, which was
purposely effected at the breaking-up of the Roman Empire, presented no difficulties
to the Powers behind, since those two aspects had always worked in close
association, and it was merely a question of emphasizing the one, and of
temporarily withdrawing the other into yet further silence and secrecy. No
essential change was required.
THE WORK OF KING
NUMA
Plutarch tells us
that the Roman Collegia were originally founded by Numa, the second king of
Rome, who lived during the seventh century B.C.* (*Plutarch's Life of Numa, A.
H. Clough, Vol. i, p. .) Numa is a half-legendary figure to our modern
historians; but he was a very real personage, and the true founder of the Roman
Mysteries as well as of the trade guilds. Plutarch says of his character:
He was endued with
a soul rarely tempered by nature and disposed to virtue, which he had yet more
subdued by discipline, a severe life, and the study of philosophy . He banished
all luxury and softness from his own home, and, while citizens alike and
strangers found in him an incorruptible judge and counsellor, in private he
devoted himself not to amusement or lucre, but to the worship of the immortal
Gods, and the rational contemplation of their divine power and nature.*
(*Ibid., pp. 130, .)
Numa was
"deeply versed, so far as anyone could be in that age, in all law, divine
and human,* (*Livy., Bk. I, xviii (Loeb Ed.)) says Livy; while Dio Cassius
tells us that he shaped the political and peaceable institutions of Rome, as
Romulus had determined its military career.* (*Dio's Roman History, Loeb. Ed.,
p. .) In addition to all his external ability, he was far advanced on the Path
of Holiness, and was a high Initiate of the White Lodge. His especial work was
laying down, at the very beginning of the Roman State, the inner foundation of
Rome's future greatness; he moulded both her outer religion and her inner
Mysteries, which in later days were to be the channel of that spiritual force
which would make Rome mighty among the nations, one of the greatest empires
that the world has ever known.
Numa sent
messengers to Egypt, to Greece, to Chaldaea, to Palestine and other lands, to
study all existing systems of the Mysteries, so that he might adopt in Rome
those most suited to the development of his people. His high occult rank opened
all doors; and like Pythagoras, an even greater Initiate, who came later, he
was enabled to synthesize many lines of tradition into one comprehensive whole.
The system which appears to have been adopted in Rome was that of the Mysteries
of Dionysus or Bacchus, which, as we have already seen, closely corresponded to
the Egyptian system; and here we have the first of the links with the Dionysian
Artificers of whom Masonic tradition so persistently speaks.
Numa introduced
the Egyptian line of succession, and thus the hierophants of his Mysteries were
I.M.s. after the manner of the priests of Egypt and the Masons of to-day. This
succession appears to have been handed down in secret among the Colleges of
Architects until the time when Christianity began to dominate the Roman world
at the beginning of the third century A.D. The fortunes of the Colleges or
guilds which were thus formed were very varied; gradually they rose to great
political power, were abolished by the senate about 80 B.C., and restored again
twenty years later. The Emperors issued edicts against them from time to time,
but those which could prove their antiquity or religious character were
permitted to remain in existence. They were finally abolished in A.D. .
THE COLLEGES AND
THE LEGIONS
440Of these
Colleges of Architects one was attached to every Roman Legion, building for it
fortifications in time of war and in time of peace temples and houses. It was
thus that the Roman Mysteries were brought to Northern Europe. Wherever the
Romans settled, the Collegia worked their rites, and in process of time native
soldiers were initiated into their ranks, until the system became deeply-rooted
in each Roman colony. Closely connected with these rites were those of Mithra
which, as we have seen, were also spread by the Roman armies, although the two
systems were always kept separate and distinct.
The organization
of the Colleges, as extant records show, corresponded in many ways with that
of our modern Lodges. "Tres faciunt Collegium" - "Three make a
College" was one of their principles; and the rule was so indispensable
that it became a maxim of civil law. The College was ruled by a Magister or
Master, and two Decuriones or Wardens; and among other officers were a
treasurer, sub-treasurer, secretary and archivist.* (*R. F. Gould, History of
Freemasonry, Vol. I, p. .) There was also a Sacerdos or Chaplain, who was in
charge of the religious side of the work. The members of the College consisted
of three grades corresponding closely to Apprentices, Fellows and Masters; and
records point to the fact that they
possessed semi-religious rites which were kept rigidly secret, and also that
they attached symbolic interpretations to their tools, such as the square and
compasses, the plumb-rule and level. They took pagan gods as their patrons in
much the same way as the guilds which succeeded them adopted Christian patron
saints. The Four Crowned Martyrs, the patron saints of Masonry, were Christian
members of a College who were tortured to death by the Emperor Diocletian for
refusing to make a statue of Aesculapius.* (*J. S. M. Ward: Freemasonry and the
Ancient Gods, pp. 144, .) They were later confused with the tradition of the
Four Brothers of Horus.
Bro. J. S. M. Ward
describes a building of the Collegia unearthed at Pompeii in 1878, which had
been buried in A.D. 79, during the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It
contains striking Masonic correspondences. There are two columns, and on the
walls are interlaced triangles. Upon a pedestal in the centre was found an inlaid
marble slab with a skull, level and plumb-rule and other Masonic designs in
mosaic work. A fresco in another building close by shows a figure in the act of
making the F.C.H.S.* (*J. S. M. Ward: Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, pp.
115, .) The Roman Colleges of Architects were brought to Britain by the Roman
army. One legion under Julius Caesar established a colony at Eboracum or York,
later to be so prominent in Masonic legend and tradition; and another centre
was at Verulam, afterwards known as S. Albans.
THE INTRODUCTION
OF THE JEWISH FORM
The introduction
of the Jewish form of the Masonic ceremonies was intentionally arranged by the
Powers who stand behind Freemasonry about the time when Christianity was
gaining ascendancy in the Roman Empire. It would have been almost impossible to
continue the Mysteries of Bacchus or those of Mithra in their original form,
while there was so much opposition between the Christian faith and the old
Pagan religion. No such opposition was in Roman days felt towards the Jews,
among whom the Christian faith arose and had its early nurture; and the Jewish
form of the Mysteries was therefore adopted by the White Lodge as the best
means of transmitting the ancient rites through the Dark Ages, when the Church
rigorously persecuted all who were not in agreement with her doctrines. The
chief agent in the work of transition was He who was then known as S. Alban,
but whom to-day we revere as the Master the Comte de S. Germain, the Head of
all true Freemasons throughout the world. I have given some account of Him and
His Roman incarnation in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry.* (*Op. cit., pp.
12-16)
THE TRANSITION TO
THE OPERATIVES
The Mysteries of
Bacchus quite naturally and gradually gave place to the Jewish form of the same
tradition as Christianity grew more and more powerful; for this was not
incompatible with the Christian faith as the Greek and Egyptian traditions
would have been; and the speculative secrets were more and more confused with
operative terminology until the transition was complete. When the Roman Empire
of the West was destroyed, political power came more and more into the hands of
the Church, which grew very suspicious of secret societies, and suppressed them
with great vigour. She did not, however, persecute the operative Masons, whom
she regarded as a body of men wisely guarding the secrets of their trade, which
she supposed to be concerned with the measurements of columns and arches,
quantities for the mixing of mortar, and other such things.
The Masters of the
White Lodge, therefore, intentionally confused the symbolical with the
operative working and thus preserved Blue Masonry, but permitted the higher
wisdom to sink for the time out of sight. Thus they provided for such of the
egos born in Europe as could not develop under the cruder teaching which was
mis-called Christianity.
This effort to
preserve the Mysteries in the Dark Ages was successful because the speculative
Masons adopted as much as they could of the operative Masons' terminology, and
entrusted them with some of the secrets. The latter then faithfully carried on
the forms without comprehending more than half of what they meant.
Then those who
held philosophical ideas of which the Church would not approve allied
themselves with the operative masons, became members of the fraternity, and
attended their meetings; they did not come into the guilds as operative masons,
and therefore were not bound as apprentices, but were free masons accepted into
the operative body, but not belonging to it by right of physical-plane work.
The tradition of the Collegia passed into the Lodges of the guilds, as we shall
see in the next chapter, and the ancient succession of I.M.s, which we in
Britain trace through S. Alban, was handed down unbroken from century to
century. In consequence of this persecution, and the partial restoration of
Masonry in different forms in different countries, its outward history had been
obscured and confused in the greatest possible degree. It is a matter that
might no doubt be elucidated by long and painstaking research, but it would be
a task involving far too great an expenditure of energy and time.
450Craft Masonry
in Medieval Times
EVOLUTIONARY
METHODS
THE theory of
human evolution ordinarily put before us is that of a slow upward progress of
man from extremely primitive and almost animal conditions through the Stone
Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, until he has arrived at his present level,
which is by this hypothesis the highest
which he has yet attained. This view is only partially true; it is only on the
one hand in a very broad and general sense covering a development lasting many
millions of years, and on the other in a purely local sense affecting one or
two sub-races, that it can be said to be true at all, for it leaves entirely
out of account some of the most important factors in the case.
Let no one ever
doubt that evolution is a fact - that God has a plan for man, and that that
plan is one of eternal advancement and unfoldment, carrying him on to heights
of glory and splendour of which at present we have no conception.
Yet we doubt not
through the ages one eternal purpose runs.
And the thoughts
of men are widened with the process of the suns.* (*Locksley Hall, by Lord
Tennyson.)
But if we wish to
understand anything of this wondrous scheme we must begin by trying to grasp
its general principles. First, it is no mere haphazard growth; it is being
definitely directed from behind by a body of perfected men which we call the
Great White Brotherhood - a body which exists to carry out the will of the
Logos of the solar system. It works through machinery so vast and complicated
that from the physical plane we can never see more than a tiny corner of its
operation, and so we constantly misconceive and underrate it.
Secondly, its
method of working is cyclical. The soul of man grows by occupying a succession
of bodies, each of which is born, grows slowly to maturity, lives its life,
learns (or fails to learn) its lesson, and then dies. Just so humanity grows by
incarnating in a succession of races, each of which passes through its stage of
youth, adolescence, full manhood and decay. Often the period of decay seems
sad, both with the man and with the race; often the student of history cannot
but regret the passing of a once mighty and splendid civilization to make way
for a savagery possibly more virile, but certainly in its youth coarser and
cruder.
A flagrant example
of that was the destruction of the gentle and beautiful civilization of Peru by
the incredibly cruel and atrocious methods of the invading Spaniards; another
very similar case was the utterly unjustifiable attack upon the civilization of
Rome by the ferocious hordes of Goths and Vandals from the north. So coarse, so
brutal were they that their very names have become a proverb, and we use them
to-day to indicate the extremes of clumsiness and wanton destruction. Yet they
also were an instrument in the hand of the divine power, and their crass
ignorance contained within itself the seed of certain qualities which were in
danger of dying out and being forgotten among the decaying races which they
were destined to leaven and partially to replace.
THE WITHDRAWAL OF
THE MYSTERIES
460Even before the
destruction of the Roman Empire the withdrawal of the Mysteries as public
institutions had taken place; and this fact was mainly due to the excessive
intolerance displayed by the Christians. Their amazing theory that none but
they could be "saved" from the hell which they themselves had
invented naturally led them to try all means, even the most cruel and
diabolical persecutions, to force people of other faiths to accept their
particular shibboleth. As the Mysteries were the heart and stronghold of a more
rational belief, they of course opposed them bitterly, quite forgetful that in
the earlier days of their religion they had claimed to possess as much of the
inner knowledge as any other system.
THE CHRISTIAN
MYSTERIES
Even to-day it is
quite commonly thought that Christianity had no mysteries, and some of its
followers boast that in it nothing is hidden. That mistaken idea has been so
sedulously impressed upon the world that it leads many people to feel a certain
distaste for the wiser faiths which met all needs, and to think of them as
unnecessarily hiding part of the truth or grudging it to the world. In the old
days there was no such thought as this; it was recognized that only those who
came up to a certain standard of life were fit to receive the higher
instruction, and those who wished for it set to work to qualify themselves for
it. Knowledge is power, and people must prove their fitness before they will be
entrusted with power; for the object of the whole scheme is human evolution,
and the interests of evolution would not be served by promiscuous publication
of occult truth.
Those who maintain
the above-mentioned opinion about Christianity are unacquainted with the
history of the Church. Though many of the early Christian writers are bitterly
hostile to the Mysteries, they indignantly deny the suggestion that in their
Church they have nothing worthy of that name, and claim that their Mysteries
are in every way as good and deep and far-reaching as those of their 'pagan'
opponents. S. Clement says: "He who has been purified in baptism and then
initiated into the little Mysteries (has acquired, that is to say, the habits
of self-control and reflection), becomes ripe for the greater Mysteries, for
Epopteia or Gnosis, the scientific knowledge of God."* (*Quoted in Some
Glimpses of Occultism, Ch. ii.) The same writer also said: "It is not
lawful to reveal to profane persons the Mysteries of the Logos."
Origen, the most
brilliant and learned of all the ecclesiastical Fathers, also asserts the
existence of the secret teaching of the Church, and speaks plainly of the
difference between the ignorant faith of the undeveloped multitude, and the
higher and reasonable faith which is founded upon definite knowledge. He draws
a distinction between "the popular irrational faith" which leads to
what he calls "somatic Christianity" (the merely physical form of
the religion) and the "spiritual Christianity" offered by the Gnosis
or wisdom. He makes it perfectly clear that by "somatic Christianity"
he means that faith which is based on the gospel history. He says of it:
"What better method could be devised to assist the masses?" In Dean
Inge's Christian Mysticism he is quoted as teaching that:
The Gnostic or
sage no longer needs the crucified Christ. The eternal or spiritual gospel
which is his possession shows clearly all things concerning the Son of God
Himself both the Mysteries shown by his words and the things of which his acts
were the symbols . Origen regards the life, death and resurrection of Christ
as only one manifestation of a universal law, which was really enacted not in
this fleeting world of shadows, but in the eternal counsels of the Most High.
He considers that those who are thoroughly convinced of the universal truths
revealed by the incarnation and the atonement need trouble themselves no more
about their particular manifestations in time.* (*Op. cit., p. .)
Here we see
distinct and repeated references to the hidden teaching, greater far than
anything known to the Church of the present day, and carrying those who study
it to a much higher level than is ever now attained by the disciples of
orthodoxy. What has become of this magnificent heritage of Christianity? It is
true that everything the Church knows is now given out, but that is only because
she has forgotten the mysteries which she used to keep hidden. This is one of
the principal reasons why she has lost control of her more intellectual sons,
and has therefore failed in her duty to educate and instruct the people in the
most important things of life, and has left our age the most unpractical one
ever known.
We have come into
this world to live our lives, not to make money, and on the way in which we
live depends the condition of our future births. One would think, therefore,
that people would be taught all about these things in school. It is certain
that every one must die, but nobody tells us anything that is worth knowing
about that important matter. On the contrary, exoteric Christianity in the days
of its power positively forbade those who knew to say anything on the subject,
and enforced with the most terrible weapons its incredibly foolish commandment:
"Thou shalt not think."
Happily all this
wonderful wisdom is not lost, for much of it is preserved to us in the
teachings of Freemasonry. There were many thousands of people at the time when
Christianity began to dominate the world who still clung to the ancient
tradition, who preferred to state their views in the older forms. As
Christianity grew narrower and more aggressive, and less tolerant of fact,
those who knew something of the truth, and wished to preserve its enshrinement
in those older forms, had more and more to keep their meetings secret; for the
Church was exceedingly intolerant towards anyone who dared to differ from her,
even in minor matters.
THE REPRESSION OF
THE MYSTERIES
470In A.D. 399 the
Emperor Theodosius issued his celebrated edict, which was a heavy blow to the
outer manifestation of the ancient pagan faith:
Whatever
privileges were conceded by the ancient laws to the priests, ministers,
prefects, hierophants of sacred things, or by whatsoever name they may be
designated, are to be abolished henceforth, and let them not think that they
are protected by a granted privilege when their religious confession is known
to have been condemned by the law.
By A.D. 423 the
penalties against those who clung to the old beliefs had become severe, for in
a later edict of the same Emperor we find:
Although the
pagans that remain ought to be subjected to capital punishment if at any time
they are detected in the abominable sacrifices of demons, let exile and
confiscation of goods be their punishment.* (*Codex Theodosianus XVI, 10, 14,
23, quoted in A Source Book for Ancient Church History. Ayer, p. .)
Wherever possible
the temples of the gods were destroyed, the ancient libraries were burnt, the
statues and other relics were broken in pieces by the brutal hands of the
savage Christians - and what destruction remained to be accomplished in the
Western Empire was completed by the no less barbarian invaders. So perished the
outer worship of the gods of Greece and Rome; the Mysteries were withdrawn into
inviolable secrecy, which remained unbroken until after the Reformation, when
the Church had lost her power to burn and torture all who did not at least
pretend to be in agreement with her doctrines.
THE CROSSING OF
TRADITIONS
This retirement
took place in several countries simultaneously, so several traditions arose
which, like the mystery-systems from which they were derived, differed
considerably in their details, though they were always based upon a common
plan. These traditions have crossed and
recrossed one another constantly throughout the centuries, have influenced each
other in all sorts of secret ways, have been carried from country to country by
many messengers; so that the Masonry which emerged in the eighteenth century
bears the signature of many lines of descent, of many interacting schools of
mystical philosophy.
Behind all these
different movements, utterly unknown except by the few disciples charged with
the work of keeping alight the sacred fire during the Dark Ages, stood the
White Lodge itself, encouraging all that was good in them, guiding and
inspiring all who were willing to open themselves to such influence.
By efflux of time
the true philosophy has gradually faded out of them again and again, and from
time to time the adepts have taken advantage of some favourable opportunity to
restore a little of it sometimes by founding a new rite or school, sometimes by
instigating the establishment of additional degrees in an existing rite. We
see, therefore, a number of parallel and equally valid streams of tradition
running down in secret throughout the Middle Ages, and emerging here and there
in movements which are to some extent known in the outer world. The real
continuum of Masonry may thus be compared to the roots of a plant creeping
along under the ground, and giving forth apparently separate plants at
intervals. There are, however, more or less broken lines of outward descent
that may be traced up to a certain point on the physical plane; it is with
these that we shall especially concern ourselves in the following chapters.
THE TWO LINES OF
DESCENT
480We have already
indicated that the only portion of the Masonic tradition which was anciently
divided into definite degrees is that which we now call Craft or symbolic
Masonry - the direct descendant of the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries of
Egypt and Judaea, and closely akin to the Mysteries of Greece. Greater
sacramental powers were conferred and deeper spiritual instruction was given to
the few who were endeavouring to prepare themselves for the true Mysteries of
the White Lodge; but these cannot be called degrees after the manner of Craft
Masonry, for even in ancient Egypt they were not organized as such. Both these
lines of sucession passed down through the Middle Ages; the Craft degrees were
deliberately confused with operative building, and were thus transmitted,
although in secrecy, in the outer world,
but the higher instruction still belonged only to the few, and was handed down
in far deeper secrecy still, being introduced from time to time into the heart
of various mystical schools, which were much more exclusive in their choice of
members than the operative builders.
With the Craft
degrees were associated the kernel of those ceremonies which we now attach to
the Honourable Degree of Mark Master Mason, connected, as always, with the 2°,
and the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch of Jerusalem, worked in
conjunction with the 3°. Our present rituals for these are not therefore
necessarily ancient, for all have been subjected to much modern recasting and
editing. A body of legend and tradition explanatory of the ceremonial appears
also to have been handed down; and the relics of this have in comparatively
recent times been manufactured into separate ceremonial degrees - such, for
example, as certain of the earlier stages of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, and their kindred among the side or additional degrees worked in England
and America.
THE CULDEES
A noteworthy line
of tradition, connected with Craft Masonry to some extent, but even more with
the Royal Order of Scotland and the 18°, is found among the Culdees of Ireland,
Scotland and York. Few trustworthy sources of information exist concerning
them, though they have been the centre of many beautiful dreams; but they are
thought by scholars to have been either an ancient monastic order with settlements
in Ireland and Scotland,* (*Enc. Brit., Art. Culdees (Eleventh Ed.)) or in a
wider sense to have represented the monks and clerics of the Celtic Church
without limitation, as well as those understood to be their successors in later
times.* (*Hist. Freemasonry, R. F. Gould, Vol. I, p. .)
We hear of them in
Ireland from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries; from the ninth to the
fourteenth centuries in Scotland, where they had several influential monastic
communities, including one upon the holy island of Iona, which had been one of
the greatest spiritual centres of Celtic Christianity long before the word
Culdee is mentioned in the historical records concerning it. In Wales in the
twelfth century there was a strict community of Culdees living in the island of
Bardsey, the holy island of Wales; while in England we find them as officiating
clergy in the Cathedral Church of S. Peter at York during the reign of King
Athelstan, who was so closely linked with English Masonic tradition.* (*Hist. Freemasonry,
R. F. Gould, Vol. I, p. 50 ff.) It is said that after requesting the prayers of
the Culdees for victory over the Scots, when he was successful he granted them
a perpetual endowment of corn, to enable them to continue their works of
charity.
Their name has
been derived from the Celtic Cele-De, meaning Companion or Servant of God, and
from the Latin Colidei, worshippers of God; others have thought that it came
from the Celtic cuill dich, meaning men of seclusion; but the etymology of the
word is not certainly known. Godfrey Higgins claimed that the word Culdee was
the same as Chaldee, and ascribed to them an Oriental origin, although he
adduces no authentic evidence for his views.* (*Quoted by Bro. A. E. Waite: A
New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Art. Culdees.)
CELTIC
CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN
Students of
English Church History know that Christianity was introduced into Great
Britain long before the missions of S. Patrick and S. Augustine; and there has
been a persistent feeling that this Christianity was not that of Rome, but had
affinities rather with the Eastern
rites.* (*Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church,
Vol. i. p. . Quoted Gould, loc. cit.) Many traditions, none of them substantiated
by authentic records, bear witness to
this belief, and point the way to a truth in the background. There is the
beautiful legend of Joseph of Arimathaea
and the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury; there is the story told by Theodoret
and Fortunatus that S. Paul visited Britain, which appears to receive some confirmation from S. Clement of Rome;
while Eusebius, the great ecclesiastical historian, mentions that some of the
twelve apostles visited the British Isles.* (*Foundation Stones. Austin Clare,
p. .) Indeed it was not until the twelfth century that Celtic Christianity was
finally brought into line with the usages of Roman Catholicism.* (*Enc. Brit.,
loc. cit.)
The holy island of
Iona, once the heart of the old Celtic Church, lies off the west coast of
Scotland among the Inner Hebrides. It was called Hy or Icolmkill (the island of
Columba of the Church), and by the Highlanders Innis nan Druidhneah (the isle
of the Druids), implying that before the coming of S. Columba in A.D. 563 it
had been a hallowed centre of the ancient worship of the Celts.* (*Enc. Brit.,
Art. Iona.) The monks of Iona spread their learning over Sootland and Northern
England, and the early Celtic Bishops owned the abbot of Iona as their
spiritual head. In 717 the monks of Iona were expelled from Scotland by the
Pictish King Nechtan; but their place was largely filled by the Culdees of
Ireland,* (*Enc. Brit., Art. Culdees.) who appear to have been followers of the
same tradition. No mention is made of the Culdees in Scotland after A.D. .*
(*Gould, loc. cit.)
We find that the
early British Church, of which the Culdees were the later survivors, possessed
a beautiful and mystical form of Christianity derived from Eastern sources and
closely connected with the traditions of the Essenes, who were the immediate
followers of Our Lord. It had the apostolic succession of the Christian Church,
but its teachings were less defined and rigid, more mystical and poetic than
the Roman scholasticism which in later days so completely absorbed it. In
addition to the Christian sacraments, certain secret rites were brought to Britain by the original
missionaries, rites belonging to the Mithraic line of succession, which, as we
have already seen, were practised among the Essenes; and there may also in all
likelihood have existed among them a succession of Jewish Masonry unconnected
with the Roman Collegia.
490THE DRUIDIC
MYSTERIES
These various
lines of tradition were assimilated to some extent with the indigenous
Mysteries of the Druids, which, however, had lost much of the splendour of
former times; and even the outer Christian rites became touched with that
peculiar beauty which is the heritage of the Celt. We find confirmation of the
ancient legend that the splendid Celtic race called the Tuatha De Danaan, which
flourished in ancient Ireland, came originally from Greece through Scandinavia;
and the same is true of other offshoots of the Celtic stock which settled in
Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. They all formed a branch of that Fourth Sub-race
from which the later Greeks and Romans were also descended; and the origin of
the Mysteries of the Druids may be traced to the great World Teacher, in His
incarnation as Orpheus, the singer of Hellas, though they were also influenced
somewhat by the still older Mysteries of Ireland which date from Atlantean
times. The lyre of Apollo became the harp of Angus; and the old worship of God
as the divine beauty manifesting through music thus passed down into Britain.
The Druidical
Mysteries had a certain influence on the imported Roman or Norman rites. They
are compared by Strabo and Artemidorus to the rites of Samothrace, and by
Dionysius to those of Bacchus, while Mnaseas refers to their Kabiric
correspondences. We learn from Diogenes Laertius and from Caesar that the Druidic
method of instruction was by symbols, enigmas and allegories, and that they
taught orally, deeming it unlawful to commit their knowledge to writing. It is
said that their ceremonies of initiation required much physical purification
and mental preparation. In the first degree the aspirant's symbolical death was
represented, and in the third his regeneration from the womb of the giant
goddess Ceridwin and the committal of the newly-born to the waves in a small
boat, symbolical of the ark. Their doctrines were similar to those of
Pythagoras - including reincarnation and the existence of one Supreme Being.
Apart from a few stray references in classical authors, we know of them today
chiefly through the Bardic songs attributed to the Welsh poet Taliesin, of the
sixth century A.D., who claimed Druidic initiation. Culdees of York blended
Christian mysticism with these pre-Christian rites, and so linked them with
modern Masonry.
There have been
many other mysteries, such as those of Ireland, closely connected with the
Druids, and of Scandinavia, wherein the death and resurrection of Balder was
the chief theme, and no doubt all these were connected with the source of our
present Masonry, being branches of the same tree, even though external traces
of their relationship in the past have disappeared.
THE HOLY GRAIL
As part of this
indirect heritage from the Greek Mysteries came the well-known symbol of the
Krater or Cup, which in the intermingling with early British Christianity was
identified with the Sangreal, the Chalice used by our Lord at the Last Supper
for the founding of the Holy Eucharist. King Arthur, who has often been
supposed to be an imaginary hero, was a very real and most lovable and
sagacious ruler, of whom England may well be proud; his Round Table also is
fact and not fiction, and among its Knights there was a rite of the Christian
Mysteries centring round the beautiful story of the quest for the Holy Grail.
Some there were who took the legend literally and undertook endless physical-plane
pilgrimages in search of an earthly cup; others knew that the mystical meaning
of the finding of the Holy Grail is the union between the higher and the lower
self, which is one of the qualifications for initiation into the true Mysteries
of the White Lodge; for the Chalice symbolically represents the causal body
into which the "blood" of the Mystery is poured. "I am the cup,
His love the wine." The Mysteries of the Holy Grail were simultaneously
celebrated in various centres, both in Great Britain and on the Continent,
where they doubtless became mingled with other lines of tradition; and in them
we find clear traces of one of those secret schools in which the flame of the
hidden wisdom burnt bright during the early Middle Ages. The tradition of the
Grail and its spiritual Knighthood passed into literature through the hands of
Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and other writers, whence on the one
hand we derive the Morte d'Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, from which Tennyson
drew the materials for his Idylls of the King, and on the other the glorious
music of Parsifal, in which Wagner reconstructed so magnificently the German
tradition of the Grail Brotherhood.
HEREDOM
In Scotland these
secret Mysteries of the East and West were handed down from generation to
generation in various centres, one of the chief of these being the sacred
island of Iona. Among the initiates of the Culdee rites Iona was called
Heredom. Heredom is said in Masonic tradition to be a mystical mountain, and as
such it is indeed the mount of Initiation beyond the veils of space and time;
but it was also the secret name of the physical centre of the Mysteries - and
this centre was Iona. Another such secret centre in mediaeval days was the
Abbey of Kilwinning; and thus, the rites which derive in part from Culdee
sources have always styled themselves as of Kilwinning and of Heredom.
The Saxon invasion
of Britain drove the Celtic inhabitants of the plains to the mountains of the
west and north; and thus there was a further mingling of the Jewish Mysteries
of the Collegia with the Culdee rites. The Culdees of York were among the
guardians of the Masonic tradition in the tenth century, and the Old Charges
tell us that an assembly of Masons was held at York during the reign of King
Athelstan, when a reorganization of the Craft took place. For many centuries
York was a powerful centre of Masonry; and we have a curious piece of testimony
given in 1835, by Godfrey Higgins, who claimed to be in possession of a Masonic
document by which he could prove that "no very long time ago" the
Culdees or Chaldaeans of York were Freemasons, that they constituted the Grand
Lodge of England, and that they held their meetings in the crypt under the
great cathedral of that city.* (*Quoted in Waite's New Encyclopaedia, Art.
Culdees.) As we shall presently see, it was at York that certain important
Masonic degrees emerged in the eighteenth century.
The monks of the
Celtic Church were largely responsible for the introduction of Christianity
into Germany. "Wherever they came they raised Churches and dwellings for
their priests, cleared the forests, tilled the virgin soil, and instructed the
heathen in the first principles of civilization.* (*Gould. Hist. Freem., Vol.
I, p. 10.) Some German authorities have held that the monks directing these
operations owed much of their success to the remnants of the Roman Colleges of
Gaul and Britain, and ultimately laid the foundations of the craft guild system
in Germany. Gould rejects this view on the ground that at the time of the
Celtic influence there were no craft guilds in Germany;* (*Gould. Hist. Freem.,
Vol. I, p. 10.) but nevertheless some of the secret rites and traditions of the
Celtic monks passed into the German monasteries and formed one of the lines of
descent of those stonemasons who built the great German cathedrals in the
Middle Ages.
500In Scotland the
Celtic Mystery-tradition passed down independently of the later operative
Lodges, for there is no trace whatsoever of any high degrees in the extant
Minutes of Mother Kilwinning, No. 0 upon the roll of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, which date from .* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's
Chapel, No. I) D. Murray Lyon, pp. 340, .) There is truth in the legend of the
coming of certain of the French Knights Templars to Scotland after their
proscription in 1307, and there was an intermingling of their doctrines also
with the Scottish rites. One line of descent crossed from Scotland to France,
where it was blended in the eighteenth century with the Egyptian tradition to
form the rite of Heredom or of Perfection under the Council of the Emperors of
the East and West, as will be further explained in Chapter XI. Another line was
handed down in Scotland and England, becoming blended with Jewish Tradition, and
Emerged in the Degrees of HRDM-RSYCS in what we now call the Royal Order of
Scotland. The curious rhymed ritual of the Royal Order bears internal evidences
of age, and although its Christianity has been ruthlessly edited in protestant
interests there are yet traces of the old mystical ideas of the Celtic Church.
50Operative
Masonry in the Middle Ages
50THE TEMPORARY
CUSTODIANS
50IN a complete
study of mediaeval operative Masonry it would be necessary to include a
treatise upon the various schools of mediaeval architecture and the tendencies,
national and economic, which influenced their creation and development. In
this book we are concerned with the operative builders only in so far as they
were the temporary custodians of the speculative science of the Mysteries; but
the study of architecture is of considerable value to the Mason; for it is the
physical-plane reflection of mighty ideas in the inner worlds, and by the study
of architecture certain of the laws of spiritual building may by analogy be
reached and understood.
50As Masons, our
speculative ancestry is noble and magnificent, for we are in that respect the
lineal descendants of the kings and prophets and priests of old who have been
the bearers of the Hidden Light to men through countless generations; but of
our operative forefathers who so faithfully guarded the tradition in the days
of darkness we may also be proud, for their art at its zenith was unsurpassed
in richness and splendour by the achievements of any other age in Europe; the
great cathedrals and monasteries which they built to the glory of God and in
the service of His Church are touched with the finger of divine inspiration, so
that the cold marble is transfigured into almost unbelievable grace and delicacy;
they are veritable dreams of beauty materialized into stone. The operative
Masons, too, have handed down to us many of their customs and usages; and it is
well that we should understand these in addition to what we have derived from
other sources.
50When Europe was
overrun by the Germanic tribes and the Empire of the West was destroyed, the
Roman Collegia for the most part disappeared with the other fruits of
civilization. The Mysteries enshrined in them survived in a more or less
repressed form in Italy, France and England, although they were kept extremely
secret for fear of the barbarian invaders. It was from these survivals that the
Lodges of the guild Masons of the Middle Ages were derived.
50DECLINE OF THE
COLLEGIA
50Mackey shows how
the Collegia declined after the fall of Rome, and how new guilds were started
and old ones revived under the patronage of the Christian clergy, and asserts
that after the tenth century the whole of Europe was perambulated by bands of
wanderers called Travelling Freemasons, who erected churches and monasteries in
the Gothic style. Authorities differ seriously in opinion as to whether the
fraternities who built the great cathedrals were joined together by any central
organization. There is much in the similarity of style of building in the
different countries, and in the Masonic signs upon the buildings, to indicate
their connection, but the central organization must have allowed its branches
great latitude, since the differences in style are also great. The cathedrals
that the Travelling Freemasons built with such great skill and artistic
inspiration were laid out upon a symbolic plan, usually based upon the cross
and the vesica piscis, and there is some evidence that they moralized upon
their tools. Undoubtedly these were men of the loftiest intellect and
spirituality, and we modern speculative Masons have no reason to be ashamed of
our associations with such operative craftsmen.
50THE COMACINI
50The first signs
of a revival in the art of building, the first stirrings of that creative
spirit which was to blossom in later years in the full glory of the Gothic, are
to be found in Lombardy, where originated the style called Romanesque, which
eventually spread all over Europe.
According to tradition, the College of Architects from Rome removed
during the last days of the Empire to the safe refuge offered by the little
republic of Comum, once the home of Pliny, and made its retreat upon the lovely
island still known as Isola Comacina in Lake Como in Northern Italy.* (*The
Cathedral Builders, Leader Scott; pp. 11, 140.) In A.D. 568 the surrounding
country fell into the hands of the Lombards or Longobards, so-called from their
long beards and uncouth appearance, whose original home had been in the lower
basin of the Elbe; and although at first they were detested by the Italians,
with surprising rapidity they developed enthusiasm for the arts and refinement
of the land they had conquered.* (*History of Art, H. B. Cotterill, Vol. I, p.
.)
5The first mention
in contemporary records of the celebrated Comacine Masters, who were descended
from that Roman College, occurs in the code of the Lombard King Rothares (643),
in which they figure as Master Masons with power to make contracts for building
works and to employ workmen and labourers.* (*The Cathedral Builders, p. .)
They are mentioned also in the Memoratorio of King Luitprand in 713,* (*Ibid.,
p. .) when they received the privileges of freemen in the Lombard State. To
their creative genius Romanesque architecture is due; and in all probability
they adapted the traditional Roman methods to the requirements of their Lombard
masters. It is clear from the Edict that they were highly-skilled architects.
From a letter from Theodoric the Great to an architect whom he had appointed,
we learn that the profession was highly developed, and an architect had to be
able to construct a building from foundation to roof, and also decorate it
with sculpture and painting, mosaic and bronzework. This inclusiveness
prevailed in all the mediaeval schools up to 1335, when the Siennese painters
seceded; and subsequently other branches also separated themselves into
distinct guilds.
The first dawn of
the new style (c. 600) was followed by a long period of obscuration, not unlike
that Dark Age which in the evolution of Greek art followed the Dorian conquest.
Then, with a strange suddenness, sprang forth (c. 1000) in wonderful perfection
the new style, and rapidly extended itself over much of western and northern
Christendom - the rapidity of this extension being easily explainable by the
fact that master-builders and workmen were often summoned to great distances
from well-known centres of architecture. In the same way as Venice and Ravenna
sent to Constantinople for Byzantine builders, Charles the Great and many other
princes, as well as cities, procured
from Italy skilful Romanesque architects, such as the Comacine Masters,
and the characteristics of this Lombard Romanesque are found not only in
Germany and France but even in England.* (*History of Art, Vol. I, p. 230.)
Italian
chroniclers relate that architects and builders were sent by Pope Gregory the
Great to England with S. Augustine, and we learn from the Venerable Bede that
S. Benedict Biscop set out for Gaul to search for masons to build the monastic
church at Monk Wearmouth "according to the Roman style he had always
loved".* (*The Cathedral Builders, pp. 143, .) S. Boniface visited Italy
before undertaking his great mission to Germany in A.D. 715; Pope Gregory II
gave him instructions and credentials, and sent with him a large following of
monks versed in the art of building, and of lay brethren who were also
architects to assist him.* (*Ibid., p. .) Leader Scott contends that these
builders were Comacine Masters, and bases her arguments upon the evidence of
building methods and the similarity of the styles employed. In like manner she
traces the Comacini into France and Normandy, Southern Italy and Sicily, and
even to Ireland in fact wherever the Romanesque style of building has
penetrated.
THE COMACINE
LODGES
The Comacine Guild
not only inherited the building traditions of the Collegia, but also their
secret Mysteries; and it was largely owing to the impulse given by them that a
general revival of the existing Lodges of Europe took place. A very
considerable interchange of influence occurs at this time; new Lodges were
founded and old Lodges were restored, for, although the primary inspiration
came from Italy, the builders in the different countries soon learnt to modify
the new style in accordance with national requirements and taste. Many of the
higher brethren, the Magistri of the Guild, were men of wide culture and
refinement, who knew much of the inner meaning of the rites and ceremonies
handed down amongst them; and it may well be that some among them possessed the
knowledge now belonging to the higher degrees, for high degree signs are
occasionally found upon their work. The majority of the craftsmen, however,
probably knew little more than that there was a symbolical meaning to their
ceremonies and tools, and tried to order their lives accordingly.
As Bro. J. S. M.
Ward has pointed out very clearly, the Comacini show marked analogies with our
modern Masonic system. They were organized into Masters and Disciples under the
rule of a Gastaldo or Grand Master. Their working-places were called Lodges.
They had Masters and Wardens, signs, tokens, grips, pass-words and oaths of
secrecy and fidelity. The Four Crowned Martyrs were their Patron Saints; they
wore white aprons and gloves, and among the symbols associated with them we
find the Lion of Judah, King Solomon's knot, the square and compasses, the
level and plumb-rule, and the rose and compasses.
On a pulpit at
Ravello, in one of their buildings of the thirteenth century, Jonah is seen
coming out of the whale's mouth, making the
F.C.H.S.* (*Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, J. S. M. Ward, Ch. xviii,
passim.) At Coire Cathedral in Switzerland, which is Romanesque in style and
contains abundant evidence of Comacine work, several figures on the capitals of
the pillars in the choir and sanctuary are depicted making Masonic s . s,
notably the F.C.H.S., the G. and R. S., and several s . s now associated with
the Rose-Croix, Knights Templars, and other high degrees in Freemasonry.* (*An
Outline History of Freemasonry, J. S. M. Ward, p. .) In the town-hall at Basle
there is a fresco by Hans Dyg, painted in 1519, in which we may see the same s
. s, and also one of the Mark degree. King Solomon's knot is the traditional
name among the Italians of to-day for the elaborate interlaced stonework
executed by the Comacine Masters up to the eleventh century. It consists always
of a single strand woven and interwoven in the most complex and beautiful designs.
Leader Scott calls it "that intricate and endless variety of the single
unbroken line of unity - emblem of the manifold ways of the power of the one
God who has neither beginning nor end".* (*The Cathedral Builders, p. .)
OTHER SURVIVALS OF
THE COLLEGIA
Before passing on
to the rise of Gothic architecture, which marks the climax of operative
achievement in the Middle Ages, it will be well if we indicate certain other
survivals of the Collegia and their Mysteries; for although the great impulse
to restore the art of building came through the Comacine Masters, other Lodges
had existed in Europe from Roman days which, under the influence of Italian
inspiration, regained their power and vitality. In France especially it is
clear that the organization of the Collegia was never fully destroyed and that
the craft-guilds (Corps d'Etat) of the Middle Ages were derived from them in
unbroken continuity.
The true origin of
the corporation is found in the social life of the Romans, and amongst the vanquished
Gauls, who always formed the principal population in the cities, and
faithfully preserved under their new masters the remembrance and traces of
their ancient organization.* (*Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ouvrieres en
France, Vol. i, p. 104, quoted Gould i, p. .)
520Roman civil
architecture, industry, art - in one word, the whole Roman tradition - was
perpetuated in France till the tenth century. Even the German conquerors, while
preserving their own national laws, customs, and usages, accepted the Gallic
industry much as they found it.* (*Monteil, Histoire de l'Industrie Francaise,
Preface by C. Louandre, p. 76, quoted ibid., p. .)
Not only was the
trade organization preserved without break; the inner Mysteries of the Colleges
of Architects were transmitted to the mediaeval building guilds of France,
though they were no doubt strongly influenced by the Italian Masters who
practised the same Mysteries and the same glorious Craft.
THE COMPAGNONNAGE
An interesting
survival of the mediaeval craft-guilds of France is seen in an association of
French journeymen for mutual support and assistance during their travels.
Practically nothing was known about the practices of the Compagnonnage before
the nineteenth century, although a partial revelation of one of the sections
composing it (Enfants de Maitre Jacques) had been extracted by the Doctors of
the Sorbonne in 1651, who not unnaturally stigmatized their proceedings as
impiety and sacrilege. In 1841 the Livre du Compagnonnage was published by
Agricol Perdiguier, a French workman of some culture, who undertook the task of
revealing as much of the history and traditions of the Compagnonnage as his
oath would permit, in order to put an end to the strife which ceaselessly
occurred between its different sections.
The Compagnonnage
consisted of three organizations perpetually at war with one another, each of
which had an interesting traditional history and claimed a traditional chief.
The oldest division was that of the Sons of Solomon, originally consisting of
stonemasons only, although joiners and
locksmiths were admitted later; the second was that of the Sons of Maitre
Jacques, who likewise admitted members of these three trades and later of many
others, notably saddlers, shoemakers, tailors, cutlers, and hatters; while the
third section followed Maitre Soubise,
and was originally composed only of carpenters, although at a later date
plasterers and tilers were also admitted. It is generally conceded that the
Sons of Solomon were the oldest of all; and another remarkable fact is that the
masons (to be carefully distinguished from the Stonemasons) were never admitted
at all. Houses of call belonging to these three associations existed in the more
important towns of France; and travelling journeymen had the right to lodging
and assistance in finding work in the houses belonging to their fraternity.
The three sections
of the Compagnonnage preserved legends concerning King Solomon and his temple.
Little is known of the form of the legend current among the Sons of Solomon,
but there are curious indications that the story of the death of Hiram (which
is not contained in the Bible) was known to them. Perdiguier tells us little,
but he gives certain hints:
An ancient fable
has obtained currency amongst them (the Sons of Solomon) relating, according to
some, to Hiram, according to others, to Adonhiram; wherein are represented
crimes and punishments. Again he tells us "that the joiners of Maitre Jacques
wear white gloves, because, as they say, they did not steep their hands in the
blood of Hiram".
Furthermore with
regard to the use of the word chien bestowed upon all the Compagnons du Devoir,
he says:
It is believed by
some to be derived from the fact that it was a dog which discovered the place
where the body of Hiram, architect of the Temple, lay under the rubbish, after
which all the companions who separated from the murderers of Hiram were called
chiens or dogs.
Some have thought,
and among them Perdiguier himself, that these are indications of a legend which
may have been borrowed from the Freemasons; but they clearly point to an
independent line of tradition handed down among the stonemasons of France.
Maitre Jacques and Maitre Soubise have also their traditional histories,
likewise going back to the days of Solomon's Temple; and in that of the former
an elaborate account of the death of Maitre Jacques is given, which may
likewise be an echo of the death of another and greater Master - for it is
clearly intended to be symbolical. There is also a suggestion that it was taken
to refer to the death of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights
Templars. Much yet remains to be discovered about the Compagnonnage, for no
full investigation into its records has yet taken place; and it may well be
that future research will show clearly that the speculative Masons of England
and the operative journeymen of France derive their traditions from a common
ancestry in the ancient Mysteries. This at least was the opinion of R. F.
Gould, the greatest of our Masonic historians.* (*See Gould. Hist. Freem., Vol.
I, ch. iv and v, for a complete account of what is known of the French Craft
Guilds and the Compagnonnage.)
530THE STONEMASONS
OF GERMANY
Another line of
survival of the ancient tradition is found among the Stonemasons of Germany. We
have already traced the influence of two streams of tradition into Germany, one
emanating from Britain through the Celtic monks, and another coming from Italy
through S. Boniface. The craft guilds of Germany developed independently of
monastic influence, but according to Gould it is probable that in the twelfth
century the skilled masons of the monasteries amalgamated with the craft builders
in the towns, and together formed the society afterwards known throughout
Germany as the Steinmetzen.* (*Concise History of Freemasonry, R. F. Gould, p.
.)
We know from the
Torgau Ordinances of 1462 that the Stonemasons venerated the Four Crowned
Martyrs as their patron saints, and the Strasburg Constitutions of 1459 contain
a devout invocation of the names of the "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; of
our gracious Mother Mary; and of her blessed servants, the Holy Four Crowned
Martyrs of everlasting memory".* (*Gould, Concise History, p. .) From the
Brother-Book of 1563 we learn that they had a greeting and a grip which might
not be described in writing;* (*Gould, Hist. of Freem., Vol. i, p. .) and a
curious piece of testimony came to light at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, when a certain architect, who had joined a survival of the Stonemasons
and was subsequently admitted into Masonry, recognized the E.A. grip as
identical with that of the Steinmetzen
of Strasburg.* (*Ibid., p. .) A ceremony of admission was in use among them;
but what it was is not known.* (*Concise History, Gould, p. .)
At Daberan in
Mecklenburg there is a carving of the Last Supper, wherein the apostles are
depicted in well-known Masonic attitudes,* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry,
J. S. M. Ward, p. .) while according to the Bulletin of the Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.) the
legend of Hiram Abiff is carved in stone at Strasburg.* (*Op, cit., vii, 200.)
In the cathedral at Wurzburg two pillars, inscribed Jachin and Boaz, originally
stood at the porchway or entrance, but they have now been moved within the
building. Stieglitz in his Early German Architecture says that they were
intended to bear a symbolic reference to the fraternity.* (*Gould, Concise
Hist., p. .) A bas-relief in a convent near Schaffhausen depicts a figure
making one of the s . s of an I.M.* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, J. S.
M. Ward, p. .) In the year 1459 the Stonemasons of Germany united to form a
Grand Guild, governed by four Head Lodges, of which Strasburg was the chief. So
close are the parallels between its organization and that of modern
speculative Masonry that many German writers have held that the Steinmetzen
were the originators of the speculative system. As a matter of fact there
appears to have been no interchange in modern times between the two
corporations, and modern German Craft Masonry is clearly derived from England.*
(*Gould, Concise History, pp. 18, .)
THE ENGLISH GUILDS
Three distinct
lines of tradition contribute to the Masonry of the English guilds. One line
was preserved among the Celts, as we have already seen, and became mingled in
later times with streams from other sources. Secondly, the Roman Collegia
survived to some extent in England after the departure of the Romans; the
Saxons found them there and did not interfere with them.* (*Coote - cited in
The Cathedral Builders, Leader Scott, p. 140.) Thirdly, there was the influx of
Continental builders, beginning in the time of S. Augustine, but greatly
augmented after the Norman Conquest under the patronage of Archbishop Lanfranc,
the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, a Lombard by birth and a celebrated
patron of building even before he came to England.* (*J. S. M. Ward,
Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, p. .) All these streams of tradition were
represented in the mediaeval guilds, and were handed down in various centres.
The French craft-guilds preserve accounts similar to those found in our English
Old Charges regarding the assistance given to Masons by Charles Martel.*
(*Gould, Concise History, p. 30.)
The secret
Mysteries of the Craft, common, save for certain unimportant local
modifications, to all these lines of descent, Celtic, Saxon and Continental,
were handed down in the Lodges of the mediaeval Masons, which were the units of
organization and labour within the guilds; they were never written down, but
were transmitted orally from generation to generation, the succession passing
down from Master to Master as in the present day. The primary work of the
Lodges was of course operative, and the speculative ritual which was handed
drown so faithfully in essentials was regarded as an ancient heritage to be scrupulously
transmitted to posterity; but it is unlikely that any but the few recognized
its true purpose, or thought of it as containing more than a merely moral code
of life. It is due to the rigid observance of the O. "never to write those
secrets" (an O. which would have been enforced by certain pains and
penalties not unknown to Masons today), that no trace of the ritual can be
found in any document prior to 1717; and it is because of this lack of all
records that many Masonic scholars believe that it was compiled only at the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Even in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, when the Old Charges were written down, no mention is made of the
Legend of Hiram; for this formed part of the secret ritual and therefore might
not be divulged. A figure representing God the Son in the porch of Peterborough
Cathedral is depicted as making the F.C.H.S.* (*J. S. M. Ward, Op. cit., p. .)
showing that this s . at least was known to our old operative brethren.
THE RISE OF GOTHIC
ARCHITECTURE
The climax of
mediaeval operative building was reached in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries in the rise and development of Gothic architecture, which was
inspired directly by the Head of all true Freemasons throughout the world, as
part of the plan for the development of the fifth or Teutonic sub-race. Many
theories have been advanced to account for the rapid development of the new
style.
Whether the
wonderful change of style that in a few years spread over a great part of
Western Christendom was due primarily to the discovery of the possibilities of
the pointed arch or those of the so-called ogival vaulting is much disputed.
Probably it was due to both, and also of course to certain movements, social
and political, which were bound to favour immensely any such new enthusiasm;
for a new national consciousness was rapidly gaining strength, especially in
France, and cities and communes were beginning to vie in erecting vast
buildings - first cathedrals and later civic edifices - the architects being
now mostly laymen, the founders and donors often municipal bodies and rich
citizens, and the workmen not seldom volunteers from the people. The old
monastic era of Romanesque suddenly gave way to that of a new, popular, and
civic architecture, and in a surprisingly short time much the same had happened
as that which we noted after the passing of the fateful year A.D. 1000, when,
according to old Raoul Glaber, Christendom cast aside its outworn attire and
put on a fresh white robe of new-built Churches.* (*Cotterill, History of Art,
Vol. I, p. .)
540We, however, do
not need to speculate or theorize as to the causes of the rapid development of
the new style, for we have the advantage of knowing that the movement was all
the time being definitely steered from behind by the H.O.A.T.F. and a corps of
able assistants under his direction.
As I have already
said, architecture has a powerful effect upon the consciousness of the people,
for it is one of the means chosen by the White Lodge to influence the
development of the various nations according to the plan of the Great Architect
of the Universe. To understand the significance of the Gothic style, we must
consider for a moment an important fact of occult history, that which is
technically known to students as the cyclic change of Ray. The seven rays, or
types of the divine consciousness and activity, to one or other of which
all living things belong, influence the
world in turn, and this cyclic change produces the modifications of outlook
which are to be noted as century succeeds century.
Each race and
sub-race has its own especial qualities to develop. The fifth root-race, to
which we ourselves belong, is engaged as a whole in the unfolding of intellect;
but each of its sub-races has likewise a quality to cultivate. The fourth or
Celtic sub-race was concerned with the evolution of intellect through the
emotions, and so produced the beauty-loving peoples whom we see in Greece and
Ireland; while the fifth or Teutonic sub-race, to which the Anglo-Saxons and
Scandinavians belong, is striving to awaken the intellect working in the concrete
mind, and so is producing the scientific and industrial nations which lead the
world to-day.
This cyclic change
of Ray, which is also part of the great plan, produces other, but no less
definite modifications in the corporate consciousness. In Greece we saw
something of the fifth ray, the ray of knowledge, working upon the fourth
sub-race with its love of beauty, resulting in that intellectual type of art so
characteristic of the classical age; the Middle Ages show forth the qualities
of the sixth ray, the ray of devotion, working upon the fifth or Teutonic
sub-race, and producing as its characteristic intellectual fruit scholastic
philosophy with its hair-splitting intellectuality based upon an almost
fanatical devotion.
Devotion, indeed,
was the great characteristic of the Middle Ages. The twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, so rich in the annals of Christian mysticism, were adorned by men
and women whose power of devotion reached heights rarely touched in any other
age. The great S. Bernard (who among many other noted works gave their Rule to
the Order of Knights Templars), Richard of S. Victor, S. Hildegarde, S. Francis
of Assisi and S. Antony of Padua, and a little later S. Bonaventura and S.
Thomas Aquinas - all these have shone forth as a light unto many generations.
Profound changes took place in the Catholic Church during these significant
years, and Europe rose from the dark ages into the full glory of an era of culture
and art. Gothic architecture was intended to lift the devotion of the masses to
greater heights than had been induced by the contemplation of the flatter
Romanesque style; by its soaring lines and ever-ascending curves, by the
richness of its ornamentation and the splendid complexity of its design, by its
amazing grace and delicacy, it had power to raise the hearts of men on the
wings of its silent music to the very throne of God Himself, to mould and
enrich their devotion in unseen subtle ways, to pour out upon them spiritual
influences which would aid in the great work of transformation which had to be
accomplished.
The change from
Romanesque to Gothic, then, was brought about deliberately. The inspiration was
given to certain master-builders in the different countries by the H.O.A.T.F.,
and the erection of the splendid cathedrals of the period was carried out by
travelling bands of Masons passing from centre to centre, and doubtless
employing the local builders upon the actual work of construction. This, as we
have said, was an age of devotion, and every stone was carved with the utmost
care to the glory of God, and thereby charged with the adoration of the skilful
craftsmen who worked so unselfishly. The powerful spiritual influences
generated by all this loving care have contributed in no small degree to the
extraordinary beauty of the Gothic cathedrals, and to the power which they
possess even in the present day of evoking devotion and reverence from all who
approach them.
The particular
expressions of Gothic vary in the different countries, and even in different
parts of the same country; that is always the case in every style of building.
But behind the whole order of Gothic architecture there is one great idea, that
of soaring, passionate devotion ever rising to the feet of God; and that is
found with national modifications in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
This was the great age of operative Masonry, and at its close the building
corporations began to decline in power, until in England and Germany especially
the movement miscalled the Reformation killed out ecclesiastical architecture,
and church building as a fine art practically ceased.
In the fourteenth
century the merchant guilds, which organized an entire industry, became
decentralized, and a new system of craft guilds gradually arose, organizing
different branches of each industry. This change of organization was due to a
profound change of thought among the people, which was to lead to the great
stirring of the Renaissance and the growth of national consciousness in the
different countries. It is at this period that the Old Charges of our ancient
operative Brn. first appear, and they were written down as the Freemasons
became gradually disorganized, in order to preserve the older oral records from
oblivion.
THE OLD CHARGES
These Old Charges
reflect in no small measure the ignorance of the time in matters of geography
and chronology, but they nevertheless contain an account of the broad outline
of Masonic descent from Egypt, through Judaea, into Europe; and it would
certainly be difficult to suppose that they were fabricated by mere operative
builders who had nothing of hidden mystery to transmit. I give below a brief
summary of the Dowland manuscript, which is fairly representative of the tradition
common to all. It is reproduced from Hughan's Old Charges (1872), and is quoted
from Mackey's Encyclopaedia.* (*Art. Legend of the Craft.)
550The legend
begins with an account of Lamech and his four children, who founded all the
sciences of the world before the flood. These sciences were engraved on two
pillars, one of which was later found by Hermes, who taught its contents to the
people. Nimrod is next mentioned as having employed Masons at the building of
the Tower of Babel, and as having given them their first Charge. Next Abraham
and Sarah are said to have taught the seven sciences to the Egyptians, and
especially to a "worthy Scoller that hight Ewclyde". The latter was
commissioned by the king to teach Masonry to a large number of children of
"the lord and estates of the realm". The legend passes then to David,
who, when he began the temple of Jerusalem, learned the Charges and manners of
Masons from Egypt and gave them to his people. Solomon continued the building
of the temple after David's death, sent for Masons from all lands, and
confirmed the Charges given by his father. There is no reference to the legend
of the 3° in any of the Old Charges before the second edition of Anderson's
Constitutions, published in 1738, except that Aynon, the son of Iram, is mentioned
as being the "chiefe Maister" of all Masons, and "Master of all
his gravings and carvinge and of all other manner of Masonrye that longed to
the temple". The legend, in defiance of all chronology, then states that,
"one curious Mason that hight Maymus Grecus", who had been at the
making of Solomon's temple, taught Masonry to Charles Martel of France. Since
the latter died in A.D. 741, the former would have been about seventeen hundred
years old, unless we are to understand that the Charge assumes that he had
reincarnated!
A legendary
account is given of S. Albans work for Masons in the third century, and
especially of his institution of General Assemblies. He is also said to have
obtained for them a Charter, to have given them Charges, and to have arranged
for better pay. Later, Athelstan is said to have built many abbeys and towers,
and to have "loved well masons". His son Edwin, who loved them still
more, held an Assembly at York and gave them a Charter. All the old writings
were collected at this period, "some in Frenche, and some in Greek, and
some in English, and some in other languages; and the intent of them all was
founded all one". These old writings were digested into the York
Constitutions which resulted from this Assembly of A.D. . It is from this
source that we draw the material now embodied in the Old Charges.
The Transition
from Operative to Speculative
THE REFORMATION
THE dawn of a new
era was heralded by the Renaissance of classical learning and culture in the
fifteenth century, a time of immense creative activity, of the bursting of
bonds, of the liberation of a new and vital spirit of freedom, the direct
result of which was what it is the fashion to call the Reformation. The cause
of this change and reconstruction was a general reaction against the spirit of
the Middle Ages.
The Renaissance
originated in that longing for emancipation from the shackles of the past which
is probably felt by every new generation, and which now and then, favoured by
special conditions, succeeds in realizing its ideals. . The ideals in this case
were joy and liberty and personality, liberation from mediaeval asceticism,
mediaeval priestcraft, mediaeval dogma; liberation from the anathema that had
rested on the natural rights of man - on freedom of thought and on moral judgment; liberation
from traditional law and self-constituted authority, and the restoration to the
individual of intellectual and moral self-rule.* (*Cotterill. History of Art,
Vol. i, p. 390.)
One of the factors
which helped to bring about this great revival of learning was the overthrow of
the Eastern Empire by the Muhammadans, the capture of Constantinople and the
conquest of Greece, driving all who possessed the means to take refuge in
Italy. Many scholars came to Italy at this time, bringing with them precious
manuscripts of the old Greek writers; and the restoration of classical
learning, classical building and classical art is the most notable feature of
the Renaissance. The invention of printing made possible a wider diffusion of
learning, and a wave of creative enthusiasm swept over Europe, leaving its mark
upon the art, literature and philosophy of the age, and indeed making all
things new.
It was obvious to
the thinking men of the period that a reform of the Church was essential, for
corruption and abuses of all kinds had crept into her sanctuaries. At first an
attempt was made towards a broader view of Christian doctrine from within the
Roman Church, and scholars, such as Ficino, the Platonists of Italy, Erasmus,
and Sir Thomas More, sought to reinterpret Christianity in the light of the
philosophy of Plato and Plotinus. But this attempt failed; and, in consequence,
the Reformation took place outside the Church in the sixteenth century. It was
an attempt to purify the Church from her abuses, to bring her teachings into
closer harmony with the new ideas; but it must be admitted that it did little
to improve matters from the spiritual point of view, even though it won freedom
of belief and liberty for the individual intellect to search for the truth in
its own way. For so great was the ignorance and bigotry of the reformers that
they cast aside the good with the evil, and framed a theology more intolerable
than that of Rome, while to a great extent rejecting her sacramental and
contemplative treasures.
THE REAPPEARANCE
OF SPECULATIVE MASONRY
After the
Reformation in England ecclesiastical architecture practically ceased as an
activity of the guilds, and the operative Lodges fell into decay since their
work was no longer needed. But while the Reformation thus injured operative
Masonry, it made Europe safe for the re-emergence into comparative publicity of
the speculative art. The guilds had always accepted rich and influential
patrons, and there was nothing new in the introduction of theoretic Masons into
the Lodges. Some have denied the possibility of any speculative Masonry
existing before the revival; but speculation was the rule rather than the exception
in all the guilds, not only the Masonic, and in that devotional age workmen of
all trades might be found moralizing upon the instruments of their labour.
560But between the
period when operative Masonry was at the height of its power and inspiration
and the revival of the speculative art at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, there was a dark period in which the light of Masonry, both operative
and speculative, seemed almost extinguished. Many of the operative Lodges had
lost nearly all trace of ritual workings, and had forgotten the traditional
secrets of building no less than the ancient secrets of the building symbolism.
It is to this period of darkness and decay as well as to the O. not to write
those secrets, that we may attribute the paucity of records referring to the
mystery-tradition among so many of the old operative Lodges; but by the
guidance of the Great Ones this was nevertheless definitely preserved, and
transmitted from various sources into our modern Craft.
THE FIRST MINUTES
It is during this
post-Reformation period, when the old Lodges had almost forgotten the glory of
their heritage, both operative and speculative, that we first find actual
minutes of Lodge Meetings. These minutes show the condition into which the
Craft had fallen at the time; they are, as we should expect, almost silent upon
all questions of ritual, secrets and symbolism, although there are occasional
indications which point to the concealment of a hidden tradition. It is in this
period also that the first public references to the secrets of the Freemasons
occur in contemporary literature; and we are able by means of them to trace to
some extent the gradual emergence of the speculative Mysteries.
SCOTTISH MINUTES
The oldest Lodge
Minute extant at the present time is contained in the records of the Lodge of Edinburgh, Mary's
Chapel, No. 1 upon the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and is dated . We
know that it had been the custom from the earliest times for the operative Lodges to "accept" nonoperative
Brethren; but the first authentic record of this is contained in the same
archives, which state that John Boswell of Auchinlech was admitted in the year
1600* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, D. Murray-Lyon, p. .) The signature
of Boswell, a facsimile of which is given in Murray-Lyon's admirable History,
is followed by his mark, a cross within a circle - a symbol often used by the
Brn. of the Rosy Cross, and bearing a profound meaning in connection with their
Mysteries. One of the earliest
references to the Rosy Cross in Great Britain occurs in Scotland and in
connection with Masonry; for in Henry Adamson's The Muses' Threnodie (dated
Perth, 1638) we find the words:
For what we do
presage is riot in grosse,
For we are
brethren of the Rosie Cross,
We have the Mason
Word and second sight.
Things for to come
we can fortell aright.
The Rosicrucian
Manifestos, which are the first literary memorials of the order (c. 1614), were
not translated and published in English until 1652, when Thomas Vaughan, the
celebrated alchemist and mystic, who
wrote under the name of Eugenius Philalethes and has now become an Adept of the White Lodge,
undertook the task;* (*The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, A: E. Waite, p. .) so
as early as 1638 Masonry was associated both with the Rosicrucian Brotherhood
and with the occult power known as second sight. The connection of the Rosy
Cross with Masonry belongs to our next chapter.
570The Mason Word
is the only secret alluded to in early Lodge Minutes in Scotland. What it was
is still unknown, although there are curious indications emanating from two
writers who did not belong to the Craft. The Rev. George Hickes, afterwards
Dean of Worcester, describes it about 1678 as "a secret signal masons have
thro'out the world to know one another by". Robert Kirk in 1691 says that
it is:
Lyke a Rabbinical
Tradition, in way of Comment on Jachin and Boaz, the two Pillars erected in
Solomon's Temple (I. Kings vii, 21), with an Addition of some secret signe
delivered from Hand to Hand, by which the know and become familiar one with
another.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .)
So far had the
Craft forgotten its traditions in Scotland that it seems clear that only one
degree existed, so far as the communication of secrets was concerned. The Mason
Word was revealed to Apprentices, under a "Great Oath", and it is
probable that a Charge was read, but there is no other indication of ritual
procedure. The attainment of the grade of Fellow of the Craft or Master was
merely a question of age and skill, and it is ordered in the Schaw Statutes of
1598 that admission to it should take place in the presence of Apprentices,
thus precluding any secrets peculiar to the Degree.* (*History of the Lodge of
Edinburgh. D. Murray-Lyon, p. 10.) As the years passed by more and more
non-operatives were admitted into the Scottish Lodges, until the speculative
element entirely predominated.
ENGLISH MINUTES
An indication of
the secret transmission of speculative masonry is found in the Lodge of the
Acception attached to the Masons' Company of London, whose records go back to
.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. 10.) We first hear of that Lodge in 1620-21,
when it was clearly a body distinct from the Company, for the King's Master
Mason, Nicholas Stone, though Master of the Company in 1633, and again in 1634,
was not enrolled among the
"Accepted Masons" until .* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .)
Persons not belonging to the Company were also eligible for admission, although
from them a higher fee was demanded for the privilege of initiation. Elias
Ashmole, the celebrated student of alchemy, who collected certain texts upon
this abstruse science in his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, was initiated into
a non-operative Lodge at Warrington in Lancashire in .* (*Ibid., p. .) In 1682
he received a summons to attend a Lodge at Masons' Hall in London - which was
almost certainly the Acception - and was present at the initiation of six
candidates, two of whom were not members of the Masons' Company.* (*Ibid., p.
.)
Elias Ashmole has
sometimes been cited as the real founder of speculative Masonry, and also as a
Bro. of the Rosy Cross; the latter suggestion is possible, although no evidence
exists upon the point, but the former cannot of course be accepted by those who
hold that Masonry has descended from the ancient Mysteries. A speculation is
put forward by Bro. A. E. Waite in a recent book, connecting the Acception with
Robert Fludd, the great English Rosicrucian Philosopher (1576-1637). He says:
However and
whenever it arose, my thesis is that the Acception may have included a group of
Hermetic Students, of which there were many at the period; that Fludd drew them
together or took his place among them; and that - after his manner and the
manner of the Rosy Cross - they began to speak of spiritual building in a Hall
of Masons, of a Hermetic Art in stone; and that therefore they may have
contributed something to our own unfinished sketch of figurative building.*
(*Emblematic Freemasonry, p. .)
Among the records
of the Acception was a Book of Constitutions "which Mr. Flood gave".
In the Harleian
MSS., No. 2054, a rough memorandum of date 1665 is found, containing the
following sentence, which looks like notes of an Obligation, used probably in
the Chester Lodge:
There is seu`all
word and signes of a free Mason to be revailed to yu wch as yu will anew: before
God at the great and terrible day of Iudgmt yu keep Secret and not to revaile
the same to any in the heares of any pson w but to the Mrs and fellows of the
said Society of free Masons so helpe me God, xt.* (*Ibid., p. .)
580Dr. Robert Plot
in his Natural History of Staffordshire (Chap. iii), published in 1686, refers
to the admission of Masons, "which cheifly consists in the communication
of certain secret signes, whereby they are known to one another all over the
Nation." He also speaks of "a large parchment volum they have amongst
them containing the History and Rules of the craft of masonry."*
(*Emblematic Freemasonry, p. .) In the Aubrey MSS. of the Natural History of Wiltshire Dr. Plot refers to the
adoption of Sir Christopher Wren as a Freemason.* (*Ibid., p. 120.) The Minutes
of Lodge Antiquity No. 2, the old Lodge which met at the Goose and Gridiron,
dated 1723, refer to a set of candlesticks which "its worthy old Master,
Sir Christopher Wren" presented to the Lodge.* (*The Builders, Vol. x, No.
2, p. .)
The "old
Lodge at York City" was in a flourishing condition in 1705, but there is
no documentary evidence to show its earlier history, though a Logium Fabricae
is mentioned in the Fabric Rolls of York Minster in . From 1705, and perhaps
before, the York Lodge was exclusively the home of speculative or symbolical
Masonry. The earliest minutes preserved are in a parchment roll dated
1712-1730. The greater number of meetings are described as Private while a few
are referred to as General Lodges, although Candidates were apparently admitted
at both. New members were "Sworne and Admitted" - the only
documentary trace of any ritual working.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .) As we
shall see, the York Lodge proclaimed itself the "Grand Lodge of All
England" in 1725, eight years after the foundation of the Grand Lodge of
England, and only a few months after the Grand Lodge of Ireland was formed; it
lingered somnolently until the closing years of the eighteenth century, when it
seems to have been silently absorbed into the bosom of its rivals. Anderson in
his Constitutions of 1738 refers to Grand Lodges which derived from other
sources than the Grand Lodge of England, and gives them definite recognition:
But the old Lodge
at York City, and the Lodges of Scotland, Ireland, France, and Italy, affecting
Independency, are under their own Grand Masters, though they have the same
Constitutions, Charges, Regulations, etc., for substance, with their Brethren
of England.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .)
This is a
significant statement, for Lodges "affecting independency," one of
which is admittedly "old," do not take kindly to innovations from
outside their ranks. If any proof is required that Masonry was not the
invention of Anderson, we have it here in his own words.
Two of Steel's
essays in The Tatler in 1709 and 1710 refer to the existence of signs and
tokens among the Freemasons. In the Minutes of the Old Lodge at York and of
Mary's Chapel at Edinburgh there is evidence of the proving of Brn. before they
were admitted to the Lodge, the latter entry referring to no less a person than
Dr. Desaguliers, who in 1721 was found qualified in all points of Masonry by
his Scottish Brn. - an incident showing identity of secrets between the
Scottish and the English Lodges.* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh. D.
Murray-Lyon, p. .) The same gradual transition from operative to non-operative
membership took place in the English as in the Scottish Lodges, and it was this
infiltration of educated and cultured men which made possible the momentous
events of .
IRISH MINUTES
Irish Masonry
presents certain difficulties of research; for it was a point of honour among
Irish Masons in the eighteenth century to destroy all documents, warrants,
certificates, Lodge registers and minute books, rather than that they should
pass into the hands of outsiders.* (*Dr. Chetwode Crawley. A. Q. C., xvi, .)
Dr. Chetwode Crawley states that there was a speculative Lodge of the English
type at Doneraile in 1710-12, which used methods of initiation not to be
distinguished from those perpetuated at the revival. Into this Lodge Elizabeth
St. Leger, the famous lady Mason, was initiated, and it must have worked at
least two degrees. Dr. Crawley remarks:
This last
deduction will require a good deal of explaining away on the part of those
Brethren who hold that, because early Scottish operative Lodges suffered the
ritual to dwindle into the merest mode of recognition, the early English
speculative Lodges cannot have worked more than one degree.* (*A. Q. C., viii,
.)
This period of
transition forms the connecting link between the old dispensation and the new.
The day of operative Masonry as practised in the mediaeval Lodges was over;
that of speculative Masonry as we know it to-day had not yet begun. No longer
was there need of secrecy; the dread of death and torture no longer compelled
the servants of the Hidden Light to take refuge in the workshops of the
builders in stone. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of action had
at last been won. And as in the twilight that precedes the dawn we may discern
the faint mysterious outlines of some lovely landscape hidden beneath the robe
of darkness, till, as the light of the rising sun glows stronger and yet
stronger, they are clothed with richer colour and beauty; so in this age of
twilight we may glimpse in the outer
world the dim shadows of the Hidden Mysteries as they emerge from their
long night of secrecy and silence into the freedom of the day, and the Royal
Art is seen once more of men.
THE GRAND LODGE OF
ENGLAND
590The only extant
record of the founding of the Premier Grand Lodge of the world occurs in the
second edition of Dr. Anderson's Constitutions, published in . No minute of
Grand Lodge itself has been traced before the year .* (*Gould. Concise History,
p. 20.) The following is part of the account therein given of this important
event in the history of Craft Masonry:
After the
Rebellion was over, A.D. 1716, the few Lodges at London. . thought fit to
cement under a Grand Master as the centre of Union and Harmony, viz., the
Lodges that met,
2 At the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in
St. Paul's Church-yard.
3 At the Crown Ale-house in Parker's Lane,
near Drury-Lane.
4 At the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles
Street, Covent Garden.
5 At the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in
Channel-Row, Westminster.
"They and
some old Brothers met at the said Apple-Tree, and having put into the Chair the
oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge), they constituted themselves a
Grand Lodge pro Tempore in Due Form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the
Officers of lodges (called the GRAND LODGE), resolv'd to hold the Annual
ASSEMBLY and Feast, and then to chuse a GRAND MASTER from among themselves,
till they should have the Honour of a
Noble Brother at their Head." The Grand Lodge was according formed on S.
John the Baptist's Day 1717, with Anthony Sayer as the First Grand Master.*
(*Gould. Concise History, p. 20.)
Bro. Calvert has
demonstrated that the first three Lodges were probably composed of operative
Masons, and numbered about fifteen Brethren each, while the fourth Lodge had a
roll of seventy members and was the speculative Lodge, to which all the leading
men of the Craft belonged in the early days, including Payne Anderson and
Desaguliers, and a large and influential body of noblemen.* (*A. F. Calvert.
The Grand Lodge of England, cited in The Builders, Vol. x, p. .)
At first very
little seems to have been done, and it does not appear that the original
founders of the Grand Lodge had the least idea of starting a world-movement;
but with the advent of the Duke of Montague to the Grand Master's Chair in
1721, the Society rose into fame and success at one bound.
The first task was
the compilation and 'digesting' of the Old Gothic Constitutions, which as we
have seen had been handed down in the Lodges from operative times; and this was
done by Anderson in . The Constitutions were printed in 1723, and a subsequent
and somewhat altered edition in 1738, when the speculative system was firmly
established under Grand Lodge auspices. George Payne, the second Grand Master,
drafted the regulations, Anderson 'digested' the general subject matter after 'a new and better
manner', Dr. Desaguliers, the third Grand Master, wrote the Preface and
Dedication, and the fourth Grand Master, the Duke of Montague, ordered the book
to be printed after its formal approval by the Grand Lodge.* (*Ibid., p. 20.)
Perhaps the most
important feature of these Constitutions is the definite removal of all
religious barriers to membership in the Order. Our ancient operative Brn. had,
of course, been Christians and Catholics; but now the universality of the
Mysteries was again to be demonstrated by the excision of all sectarian
limitations. The language in which this was expressed is not happy; but it is
possible that some inspiration may have been given upon this point, for it was
certainly in accordance with the policy of the White Lodge. Masonry is indeed
the heart of all religions, and should be bound definitely to none; although
every Mason is at liberty to profess whatever faith may be most congenial to
him, since they are all facets of the truth.
THE RECOMPOSITION
OF THE RITUALS
Much debate and
controversy has taken place among Masonic writers with regard to the origin of
our modern speculative rituals, of which there is no documentary trace before
the revival in . That there was a definite Masonic Ceremonial in existence at
this time we learn from Dr. Stukely, who tells us that "his curiosity led
him to be initiated into the mysterys of Masonry, suspecting it to be the remains
of the mysterys of the antients".* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .) He was
initiated into the Order on January 6th, 1721, and says: "I was the first
person made a freemason for many years. We had great difficulty to find members
enough to perform the ceremony."* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .) The
Manningham Letters also offer testimony that the rituals of speculative Masonry
belong to an earlier period than . Dr. Manningham, Deputy Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of England, writes in 1757 of:
One old Brother of
Ninety, who I conversed with lately; this Brother assures me He was made a
Mason in his youth, and has constantly frequented Lodges, till rend'red
incapable by his advanc'd Age, and never heard, or knew, any other Ceremonies
or Words, than those us'd in general amongst us; such Forms were deliver'd to
him, and those he has retain'd.* (*Ibid., p. .)
600This testimony
is significant, for a Mason ninety years old in 1757 would have been fifty
years of age in 1717, so that if he was initiated in his youth, our ceremonies
must date at least from the last half of the seventeenth century. It will be
remembered that the judgment of R. F. Gould is precise upon this matter:
60If we once get
beyond or behind the year 1717, i.e. , into the domain of ancient Masonry, and
again look back, the vista is perfectly illimitable, without a speck or shadow
to break the continuity of view which is presented to us.* (*R. F. Gould. A. Q.
C. xvi, 30.)
60The decay of the
operative Lodges, noted earlier in this chapter, had a disastrous effect upon
the ancient ritual which had been handed down orally from Lodge to Lodge and
from Master to Master from the days of the Roman Collegia. No word of it might
ever be written, and it had to be learnt by heart by the Masters and officers
of the Lodges. By the time, however, that we reach the days of the revival,
this oral tradition had become much corrupted, and although the ancient ritual
actions were still remembered, the words accompanying them had degenerated into
mere verbal jargon, often quite unintelligible to those who recited it. One
example will be sufficient to indicate the state of affairs. Several inns in
England are named "The Goat and Compasses," and as it stands the
phrase has no meaning, unless it be taken to refer to the perennial fable of
the "riding of the goat". The real derivation is from the words
"God encompasses us," degenerated into "Goat and
Compasses". It was into a somewhat analogous state that the whole ritual
had fallen in the days of Anderson and Desaguliers, who after the founding of
the new Grand Lodge set to work to bring order out of chaos.
60They proceeded
to collect and revise all the workings known to them, clothing the skeleton of
the ritual in the eighteenth century English so familiar in our ears to-day. On
the whole their task was well carried out, and although many losses had
occurred before 1717, the portion which Anderson brought with him was fairly
representative of the general chaos. Anderson was clearly not a man of genius,
though he did his best, and it may well be a matter of regret that the stilted
language of that dullest of dull periods should have been chosen to clothe the
ancient Mysteries rather than the inspired and stately English of a century
before. But taverns are not conducive to spiritual inspiration, and it was in
taverns that this rebirth of the Mysteries took place.
60TWO AND THREE
DEGREES
60At first it
would appear that only two degrees were worked, for the Constitutions of 1723
(Regulation xiii), speak of "Apprentices," and of "Masters and
Fellow-Craft" who could only be made in Grand Lodge "unless by a
Dispensation".* (*The Constitutions of Freemasons (Bi-centenary Ed.), p.
.) This rule was repealed in 1725, when Grand Lodge enacted that "the
Master of Each Lodge, with the Consent of his Wardens and the Majority of the
Brethren, being Masters, may make Masters at their discretion".* (*A. Q.
C., xvi, p. .) There is in this same year a mention of three degrees in the
working of the "Grand Lodge of All England" at York, when a speech
was delivered by Dr. Francis Drake, Junior Grand Warden, in which he mentions
E.A., F.C., and M.M.R.F. Gould holds that the "Apprentice Part consisted
of what we now know as the 1° and 2° and that the Master's Part" was our
3°, containing the legend of Hiram.* (*A. Q. C., xvi, p. .)
60He considers it
settled beyond dispute:
60Not only that
what we now call the Third Degree existed before the era of Grand Lodges, but
that, having passed through a long decline, its symbols had become corrupted,
and their meaning (to a great extent) forgotten, when the step itself - then
known as the "Master's Part" - is first heard of (i.e., unequivocally
referred to) in any print or manuscript to which a date can be assigned
(1723).* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .)
60It seems
probable that the original workings may have been compressed into two degrees,
and the subsequent division into three degrees may well have been a
rearrangement of the material in accordance with ancient tradition. Evidence
for the working of three grades of
Masonry occurs as early as 1725 in London in the Transactions of the
Philo-Musicae et Architecturae Societas in which certain brethren are recorded
as "regularly passed Masters," "regularly passed Fellow
Crafts" and "regularly passed fellow Craft and Master," although
it is not clearly known exactly what
took place.* (*Ibid., p. .) By 1738 the procedure in the Lodges seems to have
been generally similar to that known among us to-day.
60OPPOSITION
6That there was at
first some distrust and dislike of the new movement, upon the part of older
Masons, is certain. In the second edition of the Constitutions (1738) Anderson
tells us that in 1720:
At some private
Lodges, several very valuable Manuscripts (for they had nothing yet in print)
concerning the Fraternity, their Lodges, Regulations, Charges, Secrets, and
Usages (particularly one writ by Mr. Nicholas Stone, the Warden of Inigo Jones)
were too hastily burnt by some scrupulous Brothers, that these Papers might not
fall into strange Hands.* (*A. Q. C., xvi, p. . See ante. Page 246)
We know that there
were other Lodges not at first included in the Grand Lodge, and it may well be
that certain of the older Brn. viewed the new venture with suspicion, and
destroyed their records to prevent them from falling into the hands of
innovators. There is a suggestion, too, that other traditions were preserved
elsewhere in greater fullness, as we shall see in connection with the schism of
the "Antients". But although the Grand Lodge was inaugurated humbly
enough, it soon began to attract attention under the Duke of Montague, and its
success as a movement was immediately established.
THE SUCCESSION OF
I.M.s
The succession of
I.M.s was preserved under the new dispensation, although there is little trace
in London of a definite degree in the sense of ritual working. Such a degree
was part of the authorized working of the "Ancients" in 1751, though
it was not adopted by the "Moderns" until 1810.* (*Gould. Concise
History, p. .) The actual power, however, was transmitted by the act of
installation which forms the essential part of the sacrament, and we learn from the "Manner of Constituting a
New Lodge according to the ancient Usages of Masons" given in the
Constitutions of 1723, that after the new Master had submitted to the Charges
of a Master "as Masters have done in all ages," the Grand Master
shall "by certain significant
Ceremonies and ancient Usages, install him".* (*The Constitutions of
Freemasons (Bi-centenary Ed.), p. .)
THE GRAND LODGES
OF YORK, IRELAND AND SCOTLAND
But although the
impulse towards revival clearly originated in London with the erection of the
Grand Lodge of England, the Apple-Tree Tavern was not the only temple of the
Mysteries. Other Lodges existed both in England and the sister-kingdoms, and
other equally valid streams of tradition began to emerge in different centres.
York was for unnumbered years a powerful and hallowed sanctuary of speculative
Masonry; and the "old Lodge" at York proclaimed itself a Grand Lodge
in . It is even possible that it may have called itself such before, for there
is written testimony in 1778 from the then York Grand Secretary to the effect
that the Grand Lodge at York antedated the Lodge of London by twelve or more
years.* (*A. E. Waite. Emblematic Freemasonry, p. .)
It is clear that
ancient York workings existed, and that something of their tradition, passing
through Irish and "Ancient" Masonry, is with us to-day, blended with
the traditions inherited from Anderson. York has a glamour about its ancient
walls like that which surrounds Kilwinning and the sanctuary which was Heredom;
to York also we must look for one of the guardian-centres of our Mysteries.
It is clear from a
study of Irish Masonry and that of the "Ancients," which was so
closely allied to it, that more was handed down from the past than the three
Blue degrees; for the latter on their own showing are not complete without the
symbolism preserved for us in the Holy Royal Arch and other similar degrees,
which did not, it would seem, emerge in the South. The first mention of the
Holy Royal Arch comes from Youghal in Ireland in 1743; the second emanates from
York in . The "Ancients," though they had nothing to do with the
"Grand Lodge of All England" at York, nevertheless persistently refer
to themselves as York Masons, thus claiming kinship with the York tradition.
On the other hand,
Murray Lyon shows that the records reveal no traces of ritual procedure or of
speculative Masonry as we know it to-day until after the foundation of the
Grand Lodge of England in 1717, and that the speculative ritual was derived
from England after that event. No evidence exists to show that Lodge
Kilwinning, the second Lodge in Scotland according to the Schaw Statutes, whose
extant Minutes go back to 1642, ever worked any degrees other than those
belonging to Craft Masonry, either before or after the formation of the Grand
Lodge.
620A Past Master
of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning draws my attention to a serious mistake which I
made in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry (p. 119) in describing that historic
Lodge as founded in . He says:
Lodge Canongate
Kilwinning No. 2 received a Charter from the Mother Lodge at Kilwinning in
Ayrshire (now known as Lodge Mother Kilwinning No. 0) dated 20th December,
1677, and recorded in the Minutes of Kilwinning Lodge on that date.
The Lodge history
tells us that:
At the beginning
of the eighteenth century the Lodge numbered amongst its members the foremost
noblemen and gentlemen of Scotland who were devoted to the Stuart cause.
The unsuccessful
rising in 1715 sent those who had escaped death on the battlefield into exile:
and during the confusion attendant on those times, the whole early records of
the Lodge were lost or destroyed, and no trace of them can now be found. At
length the survivors, a small but trusty band, met about the beginning of 1735
and resumed the meetings.
The earliest
Minute in preservation is dated 13th February, 1735, and begins:
Cannongate, Feby.
ye 13th A.D. 1735 A.M. .
The Lodge having
met according to adjournment do appoint. .
The Lodge is never
closed, but adjourned to the next fixed day of meeting.
Most Lodges
install on S. John the Evangelist's Day, 27th December. Lodge Canongate
Kilwinning installs on S. John the Baptist's Day, 24th June. The earliest
reference in the Minutes of this (or any Scottish) Lodge to the admission of
Master Masons is on 31st March, .
630I apologize for
the error in my previous book, and will see that it is corrected if a second
edition should be needed.
The Grand Lodge of
Ireland appears to have come into being in 1725, and the Irish rituals are
clearly derived from a somewhat different line of tradition from those
preserved in Southern England, being indeed closely allied with the York
workings. The Grand Lodge of Scotland was formed in 1736; and here again we
find marked differences of ritual and even of secrets, though there is no
evidence on the physical plane to show whence this distinctive Scottish Masonry
is derived. It is from these three Premier Grand Lodges, and from the Grand
Lodge of the Ancients, now amalgamated with the Grand Lodge of England, that
all Anglo-Saxon Masonry, and probably much of Continental Masonry also, has
sprung. The details of their workings may differ in non-essentials, but the
same hallowed Mysteries were the heritage of all, and through them have
penetrated into all the world "to be a light to those who sit in
darkness" and "to guide their feet into the way of peace".
THE
"ANCIENTS"
As a further
indication that the Grand Lodge of England had not inherited the only tradition
current in the United Kingdom, we find the schismatic Grand Lodge of the
"Ancients" formed in 1751 in London, under the title of the
"Grand Lodge of England according to the old Institutions". The
researches of Mr. Henry Sadler into the archives of the Grand Lodge prove that
the establishment of this body was due to the activity of a number of Irish
Masons resident in London.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. .) They claimed
affinity with the York tradition, though not with the York Grand Lodge; and it
is clear that they differed considerably from the Modern or regular Grand Lodge
of England. Their Grand Secretary, Lawrence Dermott, says:
The Ancients under
the name of Free and Accepted Masons according to the old Institutions, and the
Moderns under the name of Freemasons of England, though similar in name, yet
differ exceedingly in makings, ceremonials, knowledge, Masonic language, and
installation, so much that they have always been, and still continue to be, two
distinctive societies totally independent of each other.* (*Quoted. loc. cit.)
Furthermore he
tells us something of the nature of such differences:
A Modern Mason may
safely communicate all his secrets to an Ancient Mason, but an Ancient cannot
with like safety communicate all his secrets to a Modern Mason without further
ceremony. For as a Science comprehends an Art (though an Art cannot comprehend
a Science), even so Ancient Masonry contains everything valuable among the
Moderns, as well as many other things that cannot be revealed without additional
ceremonies.* (*Ibid., p. .)
There is little
doubt that these differences consisted of changes in the 3°, the degree of
I.M., and the Holy Royal Arch; and they are clearly the result of the
inheritance of a different stream of Masonic tradition. It is almost certain
that the Moderns did make innovations in the ritual; they seem to have
exchanged the words of the First and Second Degrees, because of the exposures
contained in Samuel Pritchard's Masonry Dissected, which had an enormous sale
in England and on the Continent, and the old order is still preserved in
Continental Masonry, especially in Lodges working what is known as the French
Rite.
THE HOLY ROYAL
ARCH
The first mention
in contemporary records of the Holy Royal Arch occurs at Youghal in Ireland in
1743; and we hear of it again in 1744 in Dr. Dassigny's "Serious and
Impartial Enquiry into the cause of the Present Decay of Freemasonry in the
Kingdom of Ireland," in which he tells us of the existence of an Assembly
of Royal Arch Masons at York - from which city the degree was introduced into
Dublin; that it was known and practised in London "some small space
before"; and that the members thereof were "an organis'd body of men
who have passed the chair".* (*Quoted. loc. cit. p. .)
640We have already
seen how in ancient days the Royal Arch was associated with the 3°, as the Mark
was with the 2°; and both these items of ceremonial appear to have been
included in that corpus of tradition which reached Anderson in 17I7 or
thereabouts, and to have been worked in private in certain of the Lodges from
time immemorial, although they do not seem to have been formally sanctioned by
the Grand Lodge. The first exoteric mention of the Mark Degree occurs in the Minute-Book
of a Royal Arch Chapter in Portsmouth in .* (*Quoted. loc. cit., p. .) A
careful study of existing rituals of both these degrees shows that considerable
differences occur in English, Scottish and Irish workings; and it is clear that
in their case also many lines of tradition were handed down. Bro. A. E. Waite
refers to a ritual of the Old York Mark Lodge in his possession, which differs
almost completely from any of our present workings.* (*Emblematic Freemasonry,
p. 62, note.) It is not difficult to account for differences of ritual between
"Ancients" and "Moderns," when we consider the number and
variety of traditions handed down throughout the ages.
THE UNITED GRAND
LODGE
In 1813 the two
rival Grand Lodges of England formally united, and thenceforward the United
Grand Lodge of England has been the governing body of Craft Masonry in that
country. At the union an amalgamation took place between the two lines of
tradition, and English Craft Masonry is indebted to Ireland and to York as well
as to the Apple-Tree Tavern for its methods of working. According to the
Articles of Union already noted it was agreed upon that for the future:
Pure Antient
Masonry consists of three degrees, and no more, viz., those of the Entered
Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason (including the Supreme Order
of the Holy Royal Arch). But this Article is not intended to prevent any Lodge
or Chapter from holding a meeting in any of the Degrees of the Orders of
Chivalry, according to the Constitutions of the said Orders.* (*A. Q. C., xvi,
.)
In such wise the
Masonic tradition became fixed, and it remains the same in essentials to-day.
CRAFT MASONRY IN
OTHER COUNTRIES
It is commonly
held that Masonry was introduced into France from England about 1732, though
some think that it came in seven years earlier under Jacobite auspices. In
reality it antedates that era altogether, for Masonic tradition of some sort
had existed in France from time immemorial, and when King James II took refuge
at Clermont Abbey in 1688 he found a Masonic centre there which he tried
unsuccessfully to use for political purposes. Whether the English rite which
was brought in at the date above-mentioned linked itself in any way with the
indigenous Masonry is uncertain - there is no evidence upon the point - but
French Masonry has diverged very considerably from the English workings.
The symbolic or
blue degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite appear in many ways to
preserve a fuller tradition, and they probably represent another line of
descent, for they employ the ancient Chaldaean method of seating the three
principal officers in an isosceles triangle. As in the regular Grand Lodge of
England prior to 1810, there is no degree of I.M. worked on the Continent,
except in bodies deriving authority from the Grand Lodge in London. The elected
Master is placed in the Chair without ceremony, as in the older English
working. The Grand Lodge of Scotland recognized the ceremonial degree only in .
It was derived from sources accessible to the "Ancients," possibly
from York. Certain of the signs of the degree are found on the walls of
Egyptian temples, and when its inner or occult side is studied, installation
into the Ch.: of K.: S.: is found to have formed part of the genuine and
immemorial tradition of the Mysteries.
Masonry is said to
have appeared in Germany in 1733, though the first known Lodge was established
in Hamburg in 1737; in Sweden it dates from 1735; while Dutch Masonry was
inaugurated in 1731, when the Duke of Lorraine was initiated at the Hague by
Dr. Desaguliers.* (*Gould, Concise
History, p. 30.) It was introduced into America before 1733, when the first
Lodge holding written authority from the Grand Lodge of England was established
in Boston.* (*Ibid., p. .) It was in reality practised in America before the
date of the founding of Grand Lodge, being carried thither by some of the
earlier settlers. Many Lodges were constituted with Scottish, Irish and "Ancient"
Warrants, which accounts for the many variations to be found in American
workings. In America to-day there are over fifty Grand Lodges with a membership
of at least two millions, many of whom also belong to various high degree
Obediences.* (*Ibid., pp. 348, .) There are nine Grand Lodges in Canada, with a
hundred and twenty thousand members, and seven Grand Lodges in Australasia,
with seventy-five thousand members.* (*Ibid., p. .) Craft Masonry flourishes
likewise in many other countries, and is unquestionably one of the greatest
powers for good in the world in this twentieth century.
Other Lines of
Masonic Tradition
650THE STREAM OF
SECRET SOCIETIES
IN the name of the
Christ, the Lord of love and compassion, that body which called itself His
Church and professed to follow Him had established a reign of terror throughout
Europe, and plunged into a mad orgy of cruelty and unbridled wickedness such as
the world has rarely seen even among the most degraded savages. It was this
desperate condition of affairs that made necessary the intentional confusion of
the inner truths of Freemasonry with the trade secrets of the operative guilds;
but that was not the only method adopted by the Powers behind to carry on the
tradition of the Light through those days of more than Cimmerian darkness.
There were also certain societies, secret or semisecret, which existed for the
express purpose of perpetuating a noble and pure teaching.
Just because they
had to work so warily and so quietly it is not easy to find traces of the
activity of these organizations; but a very earnest Mason, Mrs. Isabel
Cooper-Oakley, has devoted years of patient and laborious original research in
many parts of Europe to the study of this subject, and has published the
results of her toil in Traces of a Hidden Tradition in Masonry and Mediaeval
Mysticism. From that book I extract the following list of mystical societies,
interspersed with a few names of individual mystics:
In the third
century we find Manes, the widow's son, the link for all of those who believe
in the great work done by the "Sons of the Widow" and the Magian
Brotherhood.
In the fourth
century the central figure for all occult students is the great Iamblichus, the
forerunner of the Rosicrucians.
From the third to
the ninth century the following organizations and sects appear; Manichaeans;
Euchites; Dionysian Artificers; Ophites; Nestorians; Eutychians, and the
Magistri Comacini, of whom we may read in Llorente's History of the Inquisition,
and in Professor Herzario's I Maestri Comacini. This author says: "In this
darkness which extended over all Italy, only one small lamp remained alight,
making a bright spark in the vast Italian necropolis. It was from the Magistri
Comacini. Their names are unknown, their individual works unspecialized, but
the breath of their spirit may be felt all through those centuries, and their
name collectively is legion. We may safely say that of all the works of art
between 800 and 1000 A.D., the greater and better part are due to that
brotherhood - always faithful and often secret - of the Magistri
Comacini."
In the tenth
century we find still the Manichaeans and the Euchites; also the Paulicians and
the Bogomiles.
Eleventh century:
the Cathari and Patarini, condemned by the Roman Church, both derived from the
Manichaeans; the Paulicians with the same tradition, also persecuted; the
Knights of Rhodes and of Malta; Scholastic Mystics.
Twelfth century:
the Albigenses appear, probably derived from Manichaeans who settled in Albi;
the Knights Templars, publicly known; the Cathari, widely spread in Italy; the
Hermetists.
Thirteenth
century: the Brotherhood of the Winkelers; the Apostolikers; the Beghards and
the Beguinen; the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit; the Lollards; the
Albigenses, crushed out by the Catholic Church; the Troubadours.
660Fourteenth
century: the Hesychasts, the precursors of the Quietists; the Friends of God;
German Mysticism, led by Nicholas of Basle; Johann Tauler; Christian
Rosenkreutz; the great Templar persecution; the Fraticelli.
Fifteenth century:
the Fratres Lucis at Florence, also the Platonic Academy; the Alchemical
Society; Society of the Trowel; the Templars; the Bohemian Brothers, or Unitas
Fratrum; the Rosicrucians.
Sixteenth century:
the Rosicrucians became widely known; the Order of Christ, derived from the
Templars; Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, in connection with a secret
association; Saint Teresa; S. John of the Cross; Philippe Paracelsus; the Fire Philosophers; Militia
Crucifera Evangelica, under Simon Studion; the Mysteries of the Hermetic
Masters.
Seventeenth
century: the Rosicrucians; the Templars; the Asiatische Bruder; Academia di
Secreti, at the home of John Baptista Porta; the Quietists, founded by Michael
de Molinos; and the whole group of Spanish mystics.
Eighteenth
century: the Fratres Lucis, or the Knights of Light; the Rosicrucians; the
Knights and Brothers Initiate of St. John the Evangelist from Asia, or the
Asiatische Bruder; the Martinists; the Theosophical Society, founded in London,
1767, by Benedicte Chastanier, a mystic Mason; the Quietists; the Knights Templars; some Masonic bodies.
The various sects
and bodies here detailed should not be understood as belonging exclusively to
the century under which they appear in the above classification. All that this
list is intended to convey is that such sects were more markedly prominent
during the century in which they are placed.* (*Op. cit., pp. 27-.)
Yet again Mrs.
Cooper-Oakley writes with deep appreciation of the work done by the
Troubadours:
From the death of
Manes, A.D. 276, there was an intimate alliance - even a fusion - with some of
the leading Gnostic sects, and thence do we derive the intermingling of the two
richest streams of Oriental Wisdom: the one, directly through Persia from
India; the other, traversing that marvellous Egyptian period, enriched by the
wisdom of the great Hermetic teachers, flowed into Syria and Arabia, and thence
with added force - garnered from the new divine powers made manifest in the
profound mystery of the blessed Jesus - into Europe, through Northern Africa,
finding a home in Spain, where it took deep root. From this stock sprang into
full flower that richness of speech and song for which the Troubadours will
live for ever, Manichaeans who sang and chanted the Esoteric Wisdom they dared
not speak.
Next we see them
dispersed in sects, taking local names - separated in name only, but using the
same secret language, having the same signs. Thus, everywhere they journeyed,
and no matter by what name they were called, each knew the other as a
"widow's son," bound together on a Mystic Quest, knitted - by virtue
of a secret science - into one community; with them came from the East a
chivalric ideal, and they chanted of love and sang of heaven: but the love was
a Divine Love, and their heaven was the wisdom and peace of those who sought
the higher life.* (*Ibid., p. .)
I have taken two
long extracts from Mrs. Oakley's book, because it is the only one of which I
know which treats in any detail of these little-known sects. Among them two
stand out as better known or at any rate more fully discussed than the others,
and both of them have to a considerable extent influenced our modern Masonic
rituals, especially those of the higher degrees. These two are the Knights
Templars and the Brethren of the Rosy Cross.
670THE KNIGHTS
TEMPLARS
The Order of the
Knights Templars, called also the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of
Solomon, was founded in 1118 by Hugues de Payens (Hugo de Paganis), a Knight of
Burgundy, and Godefroid de St. Omer a Knight of Northern France, in order to
protect the pilgrims who flocked to the
Holy Land after the First Crusade. Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, allotted to
those two knights and six others who joined with them quarters near the site of
Solomon's Temple, whence their name Templars was derived.
Nine years later
Hugues de Payens visited Europe with the object of placing the new Order upon a
more secure foundation and of gaining recognition and a Rule from the Pope. He
secured the enthusiastic support of S. Bernard, the great Abbot of Clairvaux,
and in 1128 a Rule, which was drawn up for them by S. Bernard himself, was
approved for the Knights Templars by the Council of Troyes. It was not,
however, until 1163 that Pope Alexander III issued the charter of the Order,
and its organization was fully established.
The Order of the
Temple in the days of its glory consisted of various grades. The Knights
(fratres milites) formed its most important section, at least from the military
point of view; at their reception they were pledged to observe the three
evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience,* (*The Reception of a
Templar. Bro. E. J. Castle, K. C. in A. Q. C., Vol. xv, p. .) like the members of all other religious
orders throughout the Church. The Knights, who were often of high birth, were
each entitled to three horses, a squire and two tents. Married men were also
received, but only on condition of bequeathing one half of their property to
the Order. No women were admitted.
Besides these
there was also a body of clergy (fratres capellani) - Bishops, priests and
deacons - who were under the same vows as the Knights, and by special
dispensation owed obedience to no superior, ecclesiastical or civil, except the
Grand Master of the Temple and the Pope. It was laid down that the confessions
of brethren of the Order should only be heard by these special clergy; and thus
their secrets were guarded inviolate. There were also two classes of Serving
Brothers, those bearing arms (fratres servientes armigeri), and the menials and
craftsmen (fratres servientes famuli and officii).
At the head of the
whole organization stood the Grand Master; next in rank came the Seneschal of
the Temple, and the Marshal, the supreme authority in military affairs; and the
Order was administered in Provinces under a number of Commanders. After the
fall of the Latin Kingdom, the Headquarters of the Order were moved from
Jerusalem to Cyprus, and Paris became the chief Templar centre in Europe.
The influence
wielded by the Templars grew rapidly. They fought gallantly in the various
Crusades, and also became the great international financiers and bankers of
the age, thereby amassing vast riches. It is reckoned that before the middle of
the thirteenth century they possessed nine thousand manors in Europe alone. The
Paris Temple was the centre of the world's money market, and their influence
and wealth in England also were very great. In the later part of that century
they are said to have drawn a revenue amounting to nearly 2,500,000 in our money, more than that of any European
kingdom or state of that time.* (*Quelques Reflexions sur les Origines de la
Franc-Maconnerie Templiere, par le Grand
Commandeur du Supreme Conseil de Belgique (Count Goblet d'Alviella). Bruxelles,
1904, p. .) At this period the Templars were believed to number between 15,000
and 20,000 Knights and Clergy; but in attendance upon these there was a
veritable army of squires, servants and vassals. Their influence may be
estimated from the fact that members of the Order were summoned to the great
Councils of the Church, such as the Lateran Council of 1215 and the Council of
Lyons of .* (*See also Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. Templars, from which much
of the above information is derived.)
The Knights
Templars brought back to the West a set of symbols and ceremonies belonging to
the Masonic tradition, and they possessed certain knowledge which is now given
only in the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The Order was
thus one of the repositories of the Hidden Wisdom in Europe in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, although the full secrets were given only to the few;
alone, therefore, among the religious Orders, their ceremonies of reception
were conducted in strict privacy. As was but natural in such an age, the most
evil and horrible practices were attributed to the Order because of this
secrecy, and stories were told which had absolutely no foundation whatever in
fact.
In the Templar
form of what we now call the 18°, the Most Wise Sovereign was an ordained
priest or Bishop, and the bread and wine which was consecrated in open Chapter
in the course of a splendid ceremony was a veritable Eucharist - a wonderful
blending of the Egyptian with the Christian sacrament.
THE SUPPRESSION OF
THE TEMPLARS
680The suppression
of this great and powerful Order forms one of the darkest blots upon the
tenebrous history of the Roman Catholic Church. The reports of the French trial
were published by Michelet, the great historian, in 1851-61 and an excellent
digest of the evidence given both in France and England is contained in a series
of articles which appeared in 1907 in Ars Quattuor Coronatorum (xx, 47, 112,
269). We can give here but a brief outline of what took place, referring those
who wish for a more detailed account to the sources quoted, and to the general
literature of the subject.
Philip the Fair,
King of France, was in desperate need of money. He had already debased the
coinage, had arrested the Lombard bankers and the Jews, and after confiscating
their wealth upon a trumped-up charge of usury - a thing abhorrent to the mediaeval
mind - had expelled them from his country. Then he determined to get rid of the
Templars, who had lent him large sums, and since the Pope, Clement V, owed his
position to the intrigues of Philip, the matter presented little difficulty.
His task was rendered easier, too, by the accusations brought against the Order
by the ex-knight Esquiu de Floyran, who had a personal interest in the matter,
and pretended to reveal all manner of evil things - blasphemy, immorality,
idolatry and the worship of the devil under the form of a black cat. This
traitor is still execrated in some of the Masonic rituals, together with one
Noffo Dei of Florence, who, however had nothing to do with the matter.
These charges were
accepted by Philip with delight, and on Friday, October 13th, 1307, all the
Templars throughout France were arrested without warning on behalf of the most
infamous tribunal that has ever existed, a collection of demons in human form
called in ghastly mockery the Holy Office of the Inquisition, which at this
time held plenary jurisdiction in this and other countries of Europe. The
Templars were horribly tortured, so that many died, and the remainder confessed
in set terms whatever the Church required. The interrogations were concerned
chiefly with the alleged denial of Christ and the spitting on the cross, and in
a minor degree with certain grave charges of immorality. A study of the
evidence reveals the entire innocence of the Templars and the diabolical
ingenuity of the familiars of the Holy Office, who kept them separated without
adequate defence or proper consultation,
and circulated among them lying rumours that the Grand Master had confessed to
the Pope that there were evils in the Order. The brethren were cajoled, bribed
and tortured into confessing crimes they had never committed, and they were
treated with the most fiendish cruelty.
Such was the
"justice" of those who bore the name of the Lord of Love in the
Middle Ages; such the compassion which was shown to His faithful servants,
whose only crime was their wealth, lawfully won for the Order, and not for
themselves. Philip the Fair obtained his money; but what karma, even in a
thousand lives of suffering, could ever be sufficient for so vile a wretch? The
Roman Church has doubtless many good deeds to its credit; but can all of them
put together ever cancel such incredible wickedness as this?
The Pope desired
to destroy the Order, and called a Council at Vienne in 1311 for that purpose,
but the Bishops refused to condemn it unheard. The Pope, therefore, abolished
the Order in private Consistory on November 22nd, 1312 (5312 A.L. - a date
still commemorated in a striking fashion in our high-grade rituals), although
he admitted that the charges were not proved. The riches of the Temple were to
be transferred to the Order of S. John: but it is certain that the French
portion found its way into the coffers of King Philip.
The last and most
brutal act of this stupendous tragedy occurred on the 14th of March, 1314, when
the venerable Grand Master of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, and Gaufrid de
Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, were publicly burned as relapsed heretics
before the great cathedral of Notre Dame. As the flames closed round him the
Grand Master summoned the King and the Pope to meet him within a year before
the judgment-seat of God, and both Pope and King were dead within twelve
months.
THE PRESERVATION
OF THE TEMPLARS' TRADITION
The destruction of
the Order of the Temple did not, however, involve a complete suppression of the
teaching enshrined within it. Certain of the French Knights Templars took
refuge with their brethren of the Temple in Scotland, and in that country their
traditions became mingled to some extent with the ancient Celtic rites of
Heredom, thus forming one of the sources from which the Scottish Rite was later
to be evolved. Traditions of vengeance upon the execrable King and Pope and the
Traitor passed down throughout the ages, and were interwoven with the Egyptian
tradition corresponding to our Black Masonry, culminating in what we now call
the 30°.
It is not
difficult to see how such confusion might arise, especially among those who did
not fully understand the inner meaning of the Egyptian teaching, and how a
particular and temporary idea of vengeance might be blended with the
philosophical doctrine of the meaning of evil and retribution and its place in
the divine plan. It is these traditions of vengeance, however little
understood, that form the basis of our 30° ritual, although in modern days the
tendency has been to soften the harsh outlines as far as possible, to expunge
all ideas of physical revenge, and even, as in the French rites, to delete all
reference to the Templars and their wrongs.
Other streams said
to be from the Order of the Temple are claimed as genuine by their modern
representatives, but without sufficient reason. The French Ordre du Temple
alleged a direct succession from Jacques de Molay, and produced in support
thereof the celebrated Charter of Larmenius (which is usually considered a
forgery); in any case the Ordre du Temple had no connection with modern
Masonry. The Strict Observance, though it claimed to perpetuate Templar lines
of thought, never, I believe, held its rituals to be of ancient origin, for
these clearly belong to the eighteenth century. The modern Military and
Religious Order of Knights Templars does not claim direct descent, though it
may well embody certain genuine traditions. Its ritual is beautiful, and it
appears to have been one of those rites which have been taken up by the
H.O.A.T.F. and used. The real rites of the Templars have not survived, though
it would no doubt be possible to reconstruct them, and certain traditions about
them have passed down and become incorporated into various modern degrees.
THE ROYAL ORDER OF
SCOTLAND
The most important
of the bodies inheriting part of the Templar tradition is the Royal Order of
Scotland, though it is in reality the result of the interaction of several
lines of Masonic descent. As I have said on page 124, the doctrines which the
Knights Templars brought with them from France when their Order was suppressed
in their native country were intermingled with those of more than one of the
existing Scottish rites. Those who founded it, or at least developed its
teaching, appear to have been thoroughly eclectic, for in addition to the
two sources above indicated they seem to
have assimilated a certain amount of material from the Culdees, and also from
the Jewish tradition, though using the symbology of the Second Temple. Ramsay
quotes in connection with it the Jewish legend of the sword and trowel; and it
is with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other that the Brn. of the
Royal Order still take their O. I have already referred to its curious old
rhymed ritual, which bears internal evidence of antiquity, and teaches the
search for a lost word which is eventually found in Christ.
The Order consists
of two degrees, the first that of HRDM or Heredom, and the second of RSYCRS or
the Rosy Cross. The degree of HRDM is divided into two parts, the Passage of
the Bridge, and the Admission to the Cabinet of Wisdom. It has certain
resemblances to some of the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Its form has been very grossly corrupted to make it agree with the most
extravagant form of modern protestantism, with references to the blood of
Jesus, to the lamb and the book, etc. The quest for the Word is analagous to
that undertaken in the Rose-Croix, though the degrees are quite different. Our
18° has little to do with the symbolism of the Royal Order, although the
purpose of the two rites is the same. The 46° of the Rite of Mizraim (Sovereign
Prince Rose-Croix of Kilwinning and of Heredom) has a close resemblance to the
ritual of the Royal Order, bearing some of the signs and much of the essential
meaning. Of all those bodies which may be thought of as developing into what
afterwards became higher degrees, this Royal Order of Scotland was the first to
formulate itself definitely, though little is heard of it in the outer world;
and it may be taken as the primary type of the Scots degrees.
THE BROTHERS OF
THE ROSY CROSS
The mysterious
Order of the Rosy Cross still remains something of a problem to the student.
The glamour of the Rosicrucian Philosophy has not yet passed away, and an
enormous mass of controversial literature has gathered about the Order, many
students affirming that it never existed at all, and that its famous manifestos
were but an elaborate hoax played upon Europe by a few unscrupulous jesters;
others say that the Society did exist, but that it was no more than an obscure
Lutheran sect which thus cleverly advertised its opinions; others, again, think
that it was a genuine school of wisdom, in which the deeper knowledge of life's
secrets was given to the few who were prepared by long discipline to receive
it.
THE LITERATURE OF
ROSICRUCIANISM
The Order of the
Rosy Cross was first made known to Europe by the publication in 1614 of the
Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the Rosy Cross, addressed to the
Learned in General and the Govenors of Europe. This was, according to mediaeval
custom, bound up with another treatise: A Universal Reformation of the Whole
Wide World, by order of the God Apollo, is published by the Seven Sages of
Greece, and some other Litterati. Some have thought this latter to be a
Rosicrucian pamphlet, but in reality it is a translation from the Ragguagli di
Parnasso of Boccalini, and probably, as Michael Maier held, had no connection
with the Order at all.* (*A. E. Waite. The Real History of the Rosicrucians, p.
.)
The Fama
Fraternitatis contains a description of the traditional life of Christian
Rosenkreutz (b. A.D. 1378), the founding of the Order of the Rosy Cross, and
his death and burial. This is followed by a highly symbolical account of the
discovery of the Tomb of C .: R .: C .: by Brn. "of the third order and
row of succession"; and finally the resolution of the Head of the Order
that it should now be proclaimed to the Western world is narrated, and an
invitation issued (in five languages) to the learned of Europe to join the
Fraternity. It closes with the statement that:
Although at this
time we make no mention either of our names or meetings, yet nevertheless
everyone's opinion shall assuredly come to our hands, in what language so ever
it be, nor any body shall fail, whoso gives but his name, to speak with some of
us, either by word of mouth, or else, if there be some left, in writing.*
(*Fama Fraternitatis, quoted op. cit., p. .)
This extraordinary
document was followed in 1615 by another striking pamphlet, the Confessio
Fraternitas R. C. ad Eruditos Europae, which was bound up in a Latin work
entitled: Secretioris Philosophiae Consideratio Brevio a Philippo a Gabella,
Philosophiae studioso, conscripta. In the Confessio, which is divided into
fourteen chapters, we have a guarded account of the aims of the Society, the
knowledge of nature's secrets contained within its different grades, the dawn
of a new age of regeneration, and a consequent appeal to all those who had the
welfare of mankind at heart, and who cared nothing for the folly and
selfishness of the "ungodly and accursed goldmaking" mentioned in the
Fama, to join the Order and partake of its privileges:
700We affirm that
we have by no means made common property of our arcana, albeit they resound in
five languages within the ears of the vulgar, both because, as we well know,
they will not move gross wits, and because the worth of those who shall be
accepted into our Fraternity will not be measured by their curiosity, but by
the rule and pattern of our revelations. A thousand times the unworthy may
clamour, a thousand times may present themselves, yet God hath commanded our
ears that they should hear none of them, and hath so compassed us about with
His clouds that unto us, His servants, no violence can be done; wherefore now
no longer are we beheld by human eyes, unless they have received strength
borrowed from the eagle.* (*Confessio Fraternitatis, quoted op. cit., p. 90.)
The Confessio is
clearly written by one deeply versed in genuine occult lore, and contains a
veiled but unmistakable promise that real knowledge will be given to the
earnest and unselfish aspirant.
A year later a
third pamphlet was published at Strasburg called The Chymical Marriage of
Christian Rosenkreutz, supposed to have existed in MSS. as early as 1601-. It
is dated Anno 1459, and commences with the following significant warning:
Arcana publicata
vilescunt, et gratiam prophanata amittunt. Ergo: ne margaritas objice porcis,
seu asino substernere rosas.* (* "Published secrets become valueless, and
things profaned lose their grace. Therefore cast not pearls before swine, nor
strew roses before an ass." Op. cit., p. .) showing clearly that it was
meant to be taken in a mystical sense. It is a long and cryptic account, lit
with gleams of humour, of the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz into the
Mysteries of the Rosy Cross, commencing from his invitation, or awakening to
the inner life, and ending with his final triumph or regeneration as a Knight
of the Golden Stone. This is the most curious of all the Rosicrucian documents,
and it will repay the close study necessary to its comprehension; for within it
are contained some of the deepest secrets of spiritual alchemy.
The authorship of
these pamphlets has always been a matter of speculation. They have all been
attributed to Johann Valentine Andreas, a cultured and travelled German scholar
of the seventeenth century, who was much interested in secret societies, and
was a follower of the doctrines of Paracelsus. The arguments for and against
his authorship are very ably given by Bro. A. E. Waite in his Real History of
the Rosicrucians, and in his recent work, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, in
which, however he may mistake, in our opinion, as to the real purpose and aims
of the original Order (the existence of which he denies) he has nevertheless
brought together a mass of valuable facts which throw a good deal of light upon
the whole question. Andreas acknowledges the Chymical Marriage, although he
calls it a ludibrium or jest; from his later works he seems to have turned
against the Order of the Rosy Cross, and started a new Society of his own. It
is extremely unlikely, however, that Andreas was the author of the Fama and the
Confessio.
These three
documents raised an indescribable storm of curiosity all over Europe. Numbers
of students wrote open letters applying to be admitted into the Order, and
setting forth their qualifications; but none of these seem to have been openly
answered. A multitude of pamphlets appeared, especially in Germany, some
attacking the Society, and others no less valiantly defending it; while many
charlatans arose, claiming to be Brethren of the R.C., and relieving the
credulous of their superfluous money. The most noted of the opponents of
Rosicrucianism was Andreas Libavius of Halle, who wrote three treatises against
the Order, in the last of which, "though posing as a critic, he advises
all persons to join the Order, because there is much to be learned and much
wisdom to be gained by so doing.".* (*The Real History of the
Rosicrucians, p. .)
On the Rosicrucian
side we may note the Echo of the God-illuminated Brotherhood of the Venerable Order R.C.,
published in 1615, and supposed to have been written by Julius Sperber of
Anholt, in which he asserts that the Rosicrucians possessed deep wisdom,
although only a few had been accounted worthy to partake of it. The Echo
claimed to embody absolute proof that the statements of Fama and Confessio were
possible and true, that the facts had been commonly familiar to certain
God-fearing people for more than nineteen years, and that they were on record
in secret writings.* (*The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, p. .) Another
pamphlet published in 1617, the Fraternitatis Rosatae Crucis Confessio Recepta,
declares that it requires much study and careful research, as well as personal sacrifice, to become the possessor of
transcendental secrets.* (*The Real History of the Rosicrucians, p. .)
But the literature
of the Rosy Cross was by no means confined to pamphlets. A system of philosophy
was put before Europe through their mediation, a philosophy which bears a
striking resemblance to that of the theurgic Neoplatonism of the third and
fourth centuries of our era. Many great names are associated with the Order;
among them was Michael Maier, who died in 1622, after writing the Silentium post
Clamores (1617); the Symbola Aureae Mensae (1617), and the Themis Aurea (1618)
- all of which expound and defend Rosicrucian and alchemical philosophy. Thomas
Vaughan, although not an actual member of the Society, was in close sympathy
with its tenets, and translated into English the Fama Fraternitatis and the
Confessio. There were Robert Flood, a great English Rosicrucian philosopher,
author of the Tractatus Apologeticus, the Tractatus Theologo-Philosophicus, and
other works; "Sincerus Renatus," or Sigmund Richter, who published in
1710 the curious work, The Perfect and True Preparation of the Philosophical
Stone, according to the secret of the Brotherhoods of the Golden and Rosy
Cross, with which is included the Rules of the above-mentioned Order for the
initiation of new Members; and, lastly, the author of the Secret Symbols of the
Rosicrucians of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, a rare book
containing a number of occult engravings which enshrine much inner teaching.
THE TRADITIONAL
HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS
The traditional
history of Christian Rosenkreutz is contained in the Fama Fraternitatis, but it
obviously cannot be accepted literally as it stands. It is clearly intended to
bear an allegorical and mystical meaning, like all the traditional histories
in the mystic schools; and, although certain historical facts may well be woven
into its structure, they can only be subordinate to the living truth its author
has sought to convey. Origen clearly states the principle always used in the
Mysteries in his De Principiis:
Where the Word
found that things done according to the history could be adapted to these
mystical senses, he made use of them, concealing from the multitude the deeper
meaning; but where, in the narrative of the development of supersensual things,
there did not follow the performance of those certain events which were already
indicated by the mystical meaning, the Scripture interwove in the history the
account of some event that did not take place,
sometimes what could not have happened; sometimes what could, but did
not.* (*Origen, Bk. IV, Chap. i, 15 (Ante-Nicene Library Ed.)
This is one of the
methods by which the secret teachings are guarded from the profane, who throw
them aside, thinking that as history they are inaccurate and uninteresting, and
so completely miss their deeper meaning.
The Fama
Fraternitatis, which admittedly contains only a tradition, written down long
after the events recorded had taken place, tells us how C .: R .: C .: was born
in A.D. 1378, of poor but noble parents, and how he entered a monastery at a
very early period of his life. While still quite young, he is said to have
journeyed to Cyprus with a Brother P.A.L., who died there. He then crossed to
Palestine, and came into touch at the age of sixteen with the wise men of
Damcar in Arabia,
Who received him
not as a stranger (as he himself witnesseth), but as one whom they had long
expected; they called him by his name, and shewed him other secrets out of his
cloyster, whereat he could not but mightily wonder.* (*Fama Fraternitatis,
quoted in The Real History, etc., p. 67, from which translation the citations
following are also taken.)
There he learnt
Arabic, translated into Latin the book M., which he afterwards brought to
Europe, and in which Paracelsus was said to have been interested; and thence he
travelled to Egypt and to Fez, to become acquainted with the "Elementary
Inhabitants, who revealed unto him many of their secrets".
From Fez the
Founder of the Order is said to have crossed into Spain, where he offered his
knowledge to the learned, but "to them it was a laughing matter". He
therefore returned to Germany, his own native country, determining gradually to
begin there the foundation of the brotherhood that was destined to reform
Europe. He chose three brethren out of his own monastery to be the first
Rosicrucians; and later increased the number to eight, binding them by certain
definite rules.
The brethren then
went forth to the world, leaving only two of their number to remain with the
head of the Order. In due time, Christian Rosenkreutz died, and was buried very
secretly in the tomb prepared for him, his resting-place remaining unknown even
to members of the fraternity.
At a later period,
a seeming accident revealed the door of the tomb, upon which was written in
great letters: "Post cxx Annos Patebo" - After a hundred and twenty
years I will come forth." In the midst of the tomb there shone a blazing
star, and upon the altar in the centre of the vault these significant words
were engraved: "A.C.R.C. Hoc universi compendium unius mihi sepulchrum
feci" - "I have made this my tomb a compendium of the universe."
Beneath the altar was found "a fair and worthy body . with all the
ornaments and attires. In his hand he held the parchment called T., the which
next unto the Bible is our greatest treasure, which ought not to be delivered
to the censure of the world." Various other objects were discovered -
"looking-glasses of divers virtues, little bells, burning lamps, and
chiefly wonderful artificial songs" - and most important of all, the
secret Book M. and other volumes, including certain of those of Paracelsus, the
philosopher and chemist of the sixteenth century.
Such is the
traditional history of Christian Rosenkreutz, as contained in the documents of
the Order. The form in which the story is cast shows that it is obviously not
intended to be an historical narrative. It is clearly designed as an allegory
to express certain hidden truths to those whose eyes are opened, even though
historical details are probably contained within it.
THE HISTORY OF THE
ORDER
720Despite the
assertions of scholars and the absence of corroborative evidence, Christian Rosenkreutz
did indeed found the Order of the Rosy Cross, and he was in fact an incarnation
of that mighty Master of the Wisdom whom we revere to-day as the H.O.A.T.F. He
was born in 1375, three years before the date given in the Fama, and was sent,
when quite young, to a lonely monastery on the borders of Germany and Austria,
where he received his education and training. Like many such communities in the
Middle Ages, this monastery preserved a secret tradition, and its monks, who
devoted themselves to meditation, were possessed of genuine spiritual and
occult knowledge. Here Christian Rosenkreutz studied those deeper secrets of
nature of which chemistry is but the outer shell, that alchemy which is
concerned primarily with the transformation of the lead of the personality into
the gold of the spirit, and only secondarily with the transmutation of metals
and the manufacture of jewels. Christian Rosenkreutz now began to travel, and
after passing through Germany, Austria and Italy, finally reached Egypt, where he
was welcomed by the Brethren of the Egyptian Lodge of that White Brotherhood to
which in past lives he had belonged.
In Egypt Christian
Rosenkreutz was received into all the degrees of the Egyptian Mysteries, which
had been preserved by the White Lodge in direct succession from the hierophants
of old; and through him we may trace one of the most important of the lines of
succession which eventually became incorporated into the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. Among other things he adapted, and translated into Latin from
the Egyptian, that Ritual of the Rosy Cross to which we have already referred,
and this became the prototype of the Ceremony of Perfection worked in the
Sovereign Chapters of Co-Masonry to-day.
On his return from
Egypt Christian Rosenkreutz founded the Order of the Rosy Cross, choosing here
and there a brother who was worthy to be brought into touch with the secret
Mysteries of Egypt and the profound occult knowledge which they enshrined. The
Order was always extremely limited in numbers, some thirty or forty at most,
but it had an enormous effect upon the secret tradition in Europe, and indeed
formed a Western school through which the White Lodge might be directly
reached. In later days a portion of its teaching and ritual passed into less exclusive hands, and it is
through one of these semi-exoteric bodies that the Rose-Croix Ritual was
transmitted into the keeping of the Council of Emperors of the East and West.*
(*See chapter xi.)
During its passage
through many hands ignorant of its true meaning that Ritual has suffered much
distortion, being on the one hand blended with protestant Christianity, as in
English and American workings, or rationalized beyond recognition under the
auspices of the Supreme Council of
France. In our Co-Masonic Order we have the great privilege of using, by order
of the H.O.A.T.F., an English translation of His original Latin ceremonial and
I think that we may say without exaggeration that it is one of the most stately
and beautiful rituals of the Rose-Croix
in existence.
The Rose-Croix, as
we have said before, is essentially a degree of Christhood, concerned with the
awakening of the Christ mystical within the heart, the hidden Love which is the
heart of the mystic rose, and which can only be known when the heart is laid
upon the Cross of Sacrifice; but it was
not originally intended to be an appendage to Christianity, as it has now
become in England, but rather an independent sacramental channel through which
the Lord of Love may pour down His Blessing upon initiates of every faith, for
it was founded thousands of years before the birth of the disciple Jesus in
Palestine. Thus although it is the Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity, who is adored in the Rose-Croix, the Christ whose Love is outpoured in the Sovereign Chapters of Heredom, in our
Co-Masonic Ritual we speak of Him only
as the Lord of Love, and do not bind our Brn. especially to the doctrines of
the last great faith which He founded in person on earth; for He is the Lord of
all religions alike, and the Rose-Croix
is no less His than the glorious sacraments of the Christian Church which He Himself gave two thousand
years ago.
The original Order
of the Rosy Cross still exists in utter secrecy, and, although it is unknown in
the outer world, its Mysteries are yet handed down on the physical plane, and
it still preserves the ancient secrets of healing and magic which its M.W.S.
brought in the fifteenth century from the Egyptian Lodge. Only very few, and
those high Initiates of the White Lodge from whence it came, are admitted to
its House of the Holy Spirit. Many have claimed and still claim to belong to
it, but it is quite independent of the many Orders and Societies, both open and
secret, which bear its hallowed name in the twentieth century. In Masonry,
however, we inherit some portion of its ritual, though but little of its hidden
lore, and the sacramental powers of the Rosy Cross yet shine through certain of
our high grades in the
Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite. There is thus good reason why modern Masons have
claimed affinity with the Rosy Cross, and why it has exercised so fascinating
an influence over the minds of men since it was first heard of in the
seventeenth century.
It is the nearest
approach to "a higher degree" that existed in ancient Egypt; in fact,
we may say that to all intents and purposes it was a higher degree, though it
never called itself so. I have explained in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry that
in Egypt thousands of years ago there were three Grand Lodges which differed
from all the rest in their objects and workings, and that it was these three
Lodges which, at certain stated times every year, undertook the duty of
flooding the land with spiritual force by means of the magnificent ritual of
The Building of the Temple of Amen.* (*The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, p. 290.)
When the Brn. were performing that holy duty they showed their solidarity with
ordinary Masonry by opening in the 1° and raising the Lodge as quickly as
possible to the 3° before commencing their wonderful work; on the comparatively
rare occasions when they had to admit a candidate carefully selected from one
of the Craft Lodges, they did not open in Blue Masonry at all, but plunged
straight into this ceremony of the Rose-Croix.
The ritual had to
be modified somewhat in the eighteenth century to bring it into harmony with
the system of higher degrees which it had then been thought well to adopt; the
list and explanation of those degrees were added, and also the reference to
Jerusalem. The Word, which in modern Masonry has degenerated into mere
initials, was then in itself a living "word of power," pregnant with
deepest meaning, though a double scheme of initials was also used. All this
needed and received the most skilful attention when the translation from
Egyptian into Latin was made; one cannot but admire the marvellous ingenuity
which, while changing the language, yet contrived to keep practically intact
the sound, the form, and an elaborate triple set of meanings, one within the
other. The eighteenth century additions have considerably lengthened the
ceremony, but they are congruous with the older part, so that it still retains
its transcendent beauty; and all the principal features of the degree - the
rose, the cross, the cup, the sacrament - are precisely the same as they were
thousands of years ago.
THE Scottish Rite
730ORIGIN OF THE
RITE
THE origin of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of 33°, or rather that of the Rite of
Perfection or of Heredom of 25° out of which it was evolved, has been one of
the most obscure Masonic problems; practically nothing is known about it by
scholars, since no authentic contemporary evidence is preserved in available
documents or publications. This silence need cause but little wonder to the
student who has followed us so far, for, like many other activities both in
politics and religion, the high-grade Masonry of the early eighteenth century
was intended to be kept secret, and the secrecy was preserved by committing nothing
to writing and leaving no trace on the physical plane. I cannot expect that my
statements will be accepted by Masonic scholars who pin their faith to
documents alone, but I shall nevertheless give a brief account of what actually
took place, supplying corroborative evidence whenever possible from reliable
historians, so far as their works are available to me. This book is written in
Australia, far away from the chief centres of Masonic life and learning, and I
have consequently had to depend largely upon the resources of my own library.
If I had access to a larger selection of Masonic volumes I should no doubt be
able to find other fragments of valuable testimony.
THE JACOBITE
MOVEMENT
There has been a
persistent tradition among Continental writers upon Masonry that the Jacobites
had much to do with the development of the higher degrees of the eighteenth
century; and, as Bro. R. R. Gould points out, colour is lent to this view by
the fact that the earliest names mentioned in connection with Freemasonry in
France are those of well-known adherents of the Stuarts, although he himself
rejects the hypothesis for lack of sufficient evidence.* (*Gould. Hist. Freem.,
III, .) We have the direct and personal testimony of Baron von Hund, the
founder of the Rite of the Strict Observance, given in 1764, that he himself
was received into the Order of the Temple in Paris in 1743 by "an unknown
Bro., the Knight of the Red Feather, in the presence of Lord Kilmarnock* (*At
that time Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and Master of Lodge
Kilwinning on his election to that high office in . Ibid., p. .) . and that he
was subsequently introduced as a distinguished Brother of the Order to Charles
Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender".* (*Ibid., p. 10.) From papers found
after his death it is clear that von Hund regarded the Knight of the Red
Feather as Prince Charles himself. The life of von Hund shows him to have been
a man of stainless honour who had made great sacrifices for the cause which he
had at heart; and although it has been said that in 1777 Prince Charles denied
to an emissary of the Strict Observance* (*Ibid., p. 110.) that he had ever
been a Freemason, such an official démenti is not unknown even to-day in
political circles, and perhaps we need not attach great importance to it.
The Scottish
adherents of King James II, who followed him into exile after the landing of
the Prince of Orange in 1688, brought to the English Court at S. Germains
(which had been placed at the disposal of the King by Louis XIV) those ancient
rites of Heredom and Kilwinning, intermingled with the Templar tradition, to
which we have already referred. When King James II fled from England he took
refuge at the Jesuit Abbey of Clermont, which had attached to it a College of
Clermont in Paris, founded by Guillaume du Prat, Bishop of Clermont, in 1550.*
(*The Catholic Encyclopaedia (1913), Vol. xiv, p. .) There, most unexpectedly,
the King found a Masonic centre, working rites which had been handed down in
France from a remote past. An intermingling of two traditions thus took place,
and it was at this period - many years before the revival in 1717 - that
certain of the ceremonies which are to-day included in the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite were first put together.
It is probably
this fact which gave birth to that other recurring tradition that the Jesuits
were connected with the development of high-grade Masonry on the Continent; and
it is from this indigenous French tradition, of which another branch had found
its way into the Compagnonnage, that the rituals of French Craft Masonry - so
different from the English - were derived. A further intermingling with the
English tradition transmitted through Anderson no doubt took place after .
King James
conceived the idea of trying to use Freemasonry to assist him in his endeavour
to regain his throne; but this attempt failed, for, though they sympathized
with the King, the Masonic authorities staunchly refused to abandon their
traditional neutral policy, or to allow the Order to become a cloak for
political intrigue. The Jacobite influence nevertheless left its traces upon
this part of Masonry, and in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite the 14° is
still called, under some Obediences, Grand Scottish Knight of the Sacred Vault
of James VI, though its older name was Grand, Elect, Ancient Perfect Master.*
(*A. E. Waite. Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, Vol. I, p. .) Baron von Hund
spoke the truth when he claimed to have met Prince Charles in Paris in 1743,
and he seems to have inherited certain lines of succession which afterwards
became the heart of the Rite of the Strict Observance. After the Battle of
Culloden in 1746, which practically destroyed the Jacobite movement, the
connection of the Stuarts with Masonry was dropped, and it seems probable that
Baron von Hund himself composed the Latin Rituals of the Strict Observance,
which played a considerable part in German Masonry in the eighteenth century.*
(*Gould. Hist. Freem., III, 10.)
THE ORATION OF
RAMSAY
After the year
1740 "Scots Degrees" sprang up in all parts of France,* (*Ibid., p.
.) and their creation and development are largely attributable to the
celebrated Oration delivered in 1737 in the Provincial Grand Lodge of England in
Paris by the Chevalier Ramsay; although the first published reference to a
"Scotch Masons' Lodge" occurs as early as 1733 in London.* (*R. F.
Gould, A.Q.C., XVI, .)
Ramsay was born in
1681 or 1682 at Ayr near Kilwinning (though he does not seem ever to have
joined that ancient Lodge). He was converted to Catholicism by Archbishop
Fenelon, whose Life he wrote and with whom he continued to live till his death
in . After that he acted as tutor to the two sons of the rightful King James
III in Rome. He was unquestionably a learned man, a deep student both of
ancient and modern history, a D.C.L. of Oxford University and, like many other
prominent Freemasons of the period, a Fellow of the Royal Society. He never
appears to have taken much interest in Masonry, though he wrote to Cardinal
Fleury, the Prime Minister of France, in 1737 asking his protection for the
Freemasons, and stating that their ideals were very high and most useful to
religion, literature and the state. He died in .
740But although
Ramsay never did much work for Masonry, the Oration which he delivered in 1737
before the Provincial Grand Lodge of England in Paris, of which he was Grand
Chancellor and Orator, had a profound influence upon French Masonry. It was a
tolerably good Oration, but nothing very extraordinary. None the less it
appears to have given just that impetus that was needed to set the French
high-grade movement in activity, and ever afterwards the makers of high grades
looked to Ramsay as their pattern and ensample.
He proclaimed the
ideal of Masonry to be a Universal Brotherhood of cultured men, a Spiritual
Empire that would change the world. He refers to the three degrees, and calls
them Novices or Apprentices, Fellows or Professed Brothers, Masters or
Perfected Brothers - a slightly different set of titles which may refer to a
different stream of tradition. These are required to practise respectively the
moral virtues, the heroic virtues and the Christian virtues.
According to him,
Masonry was founded in remote antiquity and was renewed or restored in the Holy
Land at the time of the Crusades. It has affinities with the ancient Mysteries,
especially those of Ceres at Eleusis, Isis in Egypt and others. The Crusaders
adopted a set of "ancient signs and symbolical words drawn from the well
of religion," which were intended to distinguish Crusader from Saracen,
and were concealed under strict pledges of secrecy. The intimate union between
the Crusading Masons and the Knights of S. John of Jerusalem is the reason why
the Blue degrees are called S. John's Masonry. The returning Crusaders brought
Lodges of Masonry to Europe, and from thence they were introduced into
Scotland, where "James, Lord Steward of Scotland, was Grand Master of a
Lodge established at Kilwinning, in the West of Scotland in 1286, shortly after
the death of Alexander III, King of Scotland, and one year before John Baliol
mounted the throne".
Ramsay goes on to
explain that by degrees our Lodges and rites were neglected almost everywhere,
but nevertheless they were preserved in all their integrity amongst those
Scotsmen to whom the kings of France confided during many centuries the
safeguarding of their royal persons. He allows that "Great Britain became
the seat of our Order, the conservator of our laws and the depository of our
secrets". Many of our rites and usages which were contrary to the
prejudice of the reformers were changed, disguised or suppressed. Thus it was
that many Brn. forgot the spirit and retained only the shell of the outer form.
Masonry however is to be restored to its pristine glory in the future.
The rituals of
these Scots Degrees are varied, but one chief idea underlies them all - the
discovery in a vault by Scottish Crusaders of the long-lost and ineffable Word,
during the search for which they had to work with the sword in one hand, and
the trowel in other.* (*Hist. Freem., III, p. .) This same symbolism of the
sword and the trowel is mentioned in Ramsay's speech, in which he derives
Freemasonry from the patriarchs and the ancient Mysteries through the Scottish
crusaders; and they are further mentioned both in the present ritual of the
Royal Order of Scotland, in which the candidate takes his O. with a sword in
one hand and a trowel in the other,* (*A. E. Waite. Secret Tradition in
Freemasonry, Vol. I, p. 40.) and in a quotation from that ritual occurring as
early as 1736 in print at Newcastle.* (*A. Q. C., XV, .) We hear of two
Scottish degrees being received by Baron C. Scheffer, the first Grand Master of
Sweden, in 1737,* (*Gould. Concise History, p. 300.) and we may perhaps suggest
- though in opposition to the theory held by most Masonic writers - that the
oration of Ramsay, although it may have helped to popularize Scottish Masonry,
was in reality an effect rather than the cause of the introduction of
high-grade Masonry on the Continent, which was all the time being quietly
directed from behind by the H.O.A.T.F.
The Scots Masters
claimed extraordinary privileges in the French Craft Lodges, and these were
formally recognized by the Grand Lodge of France in .* (*Gould. Hist. Freem.,
III, p. .) They wore distinctive clothing, remained covered in a Masters'
Lodge, claimed the right to confer the Craft degrees with or without a
ceremony; and eventually the Scots Lodge actually appointed the W.M. of the
corresponding Craft Lodge without consulting the Brn. over whom he was to
rule. They further usurped the privilege of the Grand Lodge and issued warrants
of constitution. One of the most important of these is the Mere-Loge-Ecossaise
of Marseilles, said to have been
constituted in 1751, which worked a number of degrees not belonging to what
afterwards became the Scottish Rite, but later incorporated - at least as far
as their titles are concerned - in the Rite of Memphis of 96°. These Scots
Lodges or still more, the Royal Order of Scotland from which they arose, form
the first public manifestation of the movement for creating high degrees which
reached such a fervour of activity in the latter half of the eighteenth
century.
THE CHAPTER OF
CLERMONT
Our main channel
of descent lies behind the Scots Lodges, and first appears indubitably in the
outer world in the Chapter of Clermont, commonly thought to have been founded
by the Chevalier de Bonneville in 1754,* (*Ibid., p. .) but in reality a continuation
of that same Order of the Temple into which Baron von Hund was received in
1743, which was derived from the Scottish courtiers exiled at S. Germains and
from the College of Clermont. According to Thory (who, however, wrote sixty
years after the event) this Chapter was based on the three degrees of Blue
Masonry, the Scots or S. Andrew's Degree, and worked three higher grades - 5,
Knight of the Eagle or Select Master; 6, Illustrious Knight or Templar; 7,
Sublime Illustrious Knight.
In the later form
in which it emerges in 1754 both Jacobite and Jesuit connections had been
dropped, and the succession, together with certain ceremonial degrees, probably
including a form of the Kadosh, had passed into the hands of distinguished
French noblemen, courtiers, military
officers, and the elite of the professions.* (*Ibid., p. .) It was in this
Chapter of Clermont and in the Council of the Emperors of the East and West
into which it was transformed in 1758, that the colossal work of casting the
ancient traditions into a ceremonial rite was to a great extent performed; and
it is in these two bodies, which were yet one body, that the immediate origin
of our Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is to be found.
THE COUNCIL OF
EMPERORS
750The Council of
Emperors was composed largely of men of noble birth and high culture who were
also deep students of the secret science, learned in various traditions of the
wisdom which had been handed down along so many lines in the past. They had
inherited not only the Clermont Rites and the Scottish lines of Kilwinning and
of Heredom, but other traditions derived directly from both Templar and
Rosicrucian sources, together with the powers of the Egyptian rite to which we
have previously referred. They were men of wide knowledge, but also apparently
of overweening pride, like so many of the nobles of the ancien regime; and the
drawing together of this body of noblemen was one of the attempts made by the
emissaries of the White Lodge to prepare them for the great changes which should
have been accomplished, had not their pride been so great, without the horrors
of the French Revolution.
A definite
commission appears to have been given to them by the H.O.A.T.F., the Master the Comte de S.
Germain Himself, to mould all these various traditions, which He had caused
them to inherit, into a rite which should express to some extent the power for
good of the Egyptian succession in a
form suited to a more modern age. These orders they proceeded to carry out as
faithfully as possible, and the result of their labours was the Rite of
Perfection or of Heredom of twenty-five degrees, all of which are still
contained in our modern Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The Council of
Emperors received much inspiration from the H.O.A.T.F., although not
necessarily on the physical plane, and it must have been far easier to
influence such a body of men than the frequentors of those Georgian taverns
which were the first temples of the English Mysteries after the great revival
in . But, as with many other attempts to synthesize a number of traditions by a
committee of revision, the Council of Emperors was hampered in its work by the
necessity of including less important materials which had come into the hands
of certain of its members. The result is seen in the inclusion of several
almost meaningless intermediate degrees, which still belong to the Scottish
Rite, but are seldom or never worked among US.
A certain marriage
of traditions took place in the case of the 18°, for the great ritual of the
Rosy Cross used for the perfecting of the Rosicrucian and Egyptian Brethren,
though shorn already of much of its ancient splendour, was blended with the old
Mithraic Eucharist handed down in the Rites of Heredom, to form the source of
our modern workings of the Rose-Croix. The Emperors' Ritual of the 30°, then
called the 24°, Grand Commander of the Black and White Eagle, Grand Elect
Kadosh, reflected far more efficiently the Egyptian teachings of Black Masonry than those which
have to-day reached us through the hands
of many editors, who were ignorant of their true meaning. The highest Degree
among them was the 25°, now our 32°, called Most Illustrious Prince of Masonry,
Grand and Sublime Knight Commander of
the Royal Secret; and the Tracing Board of the 32°, often little understood,
reflects their original plan of union with the, Hidden Light through the
passing of many rites of initiation.
There was no
degree of Sovereign Grand Inspector-General, for the 33° as such did not yet
exist; but the wonderful powers which now belong to that high rank were
conferred upon their Grand Inspectors, chosen from among the Prince Masons of
the 25°; and the great white Angels who wear the insignia of the KING were
linked with these, even as they are linked with the Brn. of the 33° to-day. The
crimson Angels of the Rosy Cross likewise attended their Sovereign Chapters,
and many other glorious powers which are ours to-day were theirs also. Thus the
Council of Emperors represents the first real attempt ever made to incorporate the
full Egyptian inner tradition into a ceremonial form; and as such it is an
important landmark in the history of Masonry.
Almost all the
splendid teaching given by the great Master the Comte de St. Germain, by Pere
Joseph and Cagliostro, and other emissaries of the White Lodge, was swept into
oblivion in the colossal tragedy of the French Revolution. The Rite of
Perfection of twenty-five degrees was carried into Great Britain, and handed
down among the Templar Encampments long before the advent of the Supreme
Councils of the Scottish Rite which derived their authority from Charleston.
Most of the Brn. of the old Rite joined the new Obediences as soon as they were formed; but there exists to-day one line
of tradition at least, in part derived from those old Templar Encampments,
which has never been incorporated in the Supreme Councils of England, Scotland
and Ireland. There was also a perpetuation in France, which later amalgamated
with the French Supreme Council.* (*Gould. Hist. Freem., p. .)
STEPHEN MORIN
The scene of our
story now shifts to the New World; for it was there that the change from the
Rite of Perfection of 25° into the Scottish Rite of 33° took place. In 1761,
three years only after its foundation, the Council of the Emperors of the East
and West granted a patent to one Stephen Morin "to establish perfect and
sublime Masonry in all parts of the world," constituting him a Grand
Inspecter of the Rite of Perfection. The patent authorized him to "form
and establish a Lodge in order to admit to and multiply the Royal Order of
Masons in all the perfect and sublime degrees," and gave him power to
create other Inspectors. The original of this document has not yet been found,
and the world knows of it only from the copy preserved in the Golden Book of
the Comte de Grasse-Tilly, founder of the Supreme Council 33° of France. Bro.
R. R Gould, however, has a right intuition in the matter, for he "is by no
means prepared to deny its authenticity," and a complete transcription of
it is given in his History of Freemasonry.* (*III, p. 125ff.) It is signed by Chaillon de Joinville, Prince
de Rohan, Brest-de-laChaussee, Comte de Choiseul, and others of the Council of
the Emperors. In 1761, Stephen Morin
arrived in San Domingo, where he commenced the dissemination of the rite, and
appointed many Inspectors both for the West Indies and the United States.*
(*Mackey's Encyclopaedia. Art. Scottish Rite.)
He was
unfortunately by no means an ideal Channel for spiritual force, and although he
certainly transmitted to his American Brn. the Egyptian succession of powers,
he was sometimes not in possession of the fullness of the power himself. At
times he rose splendidly to the occasion, and showed signs of distinct
advancement; I have watched him during the consecration of a Chapter of the
high degrees magnificently overshadowed by the H.O.A.T.F. Himself and the great
white Angels. But it cannot be denied that he had many faults, among others a
passion for amorous intrigues; and not infrequently the greater part of his
spiritual heritage was withdrawn, leaving him the mere seeds of the succession
to transmit to others. The reports of his misdoings were so numerous and
persistent that at one time the Council of Emperors actually withdrew his
patent; but posts were slow in those days, and before the withdrawal reached
him the Council had already cancelled it, and fully reinstated him.
Stephen Morin was
also unfortunate in his choice of lieutenants, for in many cases these were
Jews of not very good repute; and it is through these somewhat soiled hands
that we must trace the Rite of Perfection during the next forty years. The rite
passed through a period of obscuration, when the degrees were shamelessly sold
to any who would buy their titles, and the inner meaning of the ceremonies was
almost forgotten. But although the splendid occult knowledge of the Emperors
was lost and the rites became shorn of most of their power, the seeds of the
succession still passed down - until a higher class of egos was guided into the
rite and a new era began. The rite was established at Charleston in 1783 by
Isaac da Costa, who was created Deputy-Inspecter of South Carolina by Moses
Hayes. It will be seen that a succession is definitely claimed by the
authorities of the rite.
760FREDERICK THE
GREAT
It was during this
period of obscuration that the curious myth of Frederick the Great arose among
the Jews, probably in order to enhance the commercial value of the degrees; and
it was apparently really believed that the King of Prussia was the Supreme Head
of the Rite, for in the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of Perfection in Albany (New
York), founded in 1767, the Lodge is required, on September 3rd, 1770, to
prepare its report for transmission to Berlin. We find also in 1785, one year
before the king's death, a letter addressed to Frederick by a certain Solomon
Bush, Deputy Grand Inspector of North America, asking for recognition of a
Lodge which he had consecrated.* (*Note Historique sur le Rite Ecoss . : Anc .
: et Acc . : Par le Souv .: Gr .: (Count
Goblet d'Alviella) p. .) It was afterwards alleged that Frederick the
Great, on his death-bed, ratified the Grand Constitutions of 1786 containing
the laws that still bind the Scottish Rite, and that he constituted the 33° in
person, delegating his powers as a Sovereign of Masonry to nine Brn. in each
country. The original Grand Constitutions were in French, but in 1834 a Latin
version of them alleged to have been signed by Frederick himself was accepted
as genuine by the Supreme Council of France; but this is now on all sides
admitted to be a forgery.
The truth is that
Frederick took no active part in the Rite of Perfection, that he neither
ratified the Constitutions nor created the 33°; and indeed to-day the majority
even of the Supreme Councils are prepared to waive the claim that they derive
their authority from Frederick the Great, whose interest in Masonry (at any
rate in later years) was but of the slightest. The grand constitutions
nevertheless remain the law of the Rite in all Supreme Councils deriving
lawfully from Charleston, and Albert Pike believed them to be genuine. As it is
certain that Frederick had nothing to do with the Rite, I fear we must
regretfully conclude that both the fourth and the fifth documents in de Grasse-Tilly's
Golden Book - the alleged Constitutions of 1762 and the Grand Constitutions of
1786 - were forgeries. It would seem that they were sent over from Europe,
perhaps in response to a demand from the Jewish interest; and the fact that Dr.
Dalcho's father was an officer in the Prussian army who had served with great
distinction under Frederick the Great may well have disposed the Doctor the
more readily to accept these remarkable documents.
THE CHARLESTON
TRANSFORMATION
The second great
transformation of the high degrees, though it was on a far smaller scale than
the first, took place at Charleston before 180. We learn from the Circular of
Dr. Dalcho that
On the 31st of
May, 1801, the Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree for the United States
of America was opened, with the high honours of Masonry, by Brothers John
Mitchell and Frederick Dalcho, Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General; and in the
course of the present year (1802) the whole number of Grand Inspectors-General
was completed, agreeably to the Grand Constitutions.* (*Quoted in Mackey's
Encyclopaedia. Art. Supreme Council.)
Such is a brief
account of the formation of that which called itself the Mother Supreme Council
of the World, from which, indeed, all other Supreme Councils of the world
spring, with the exception of a few survivals of other lines of descent. It is
clear from archives in the possession of the Mother Supreme Council that up to
the eve of its formation the only degrees worked were the 25° of the Rite of
Perfection.
The formation of
the new Rite was inspired and directed by the H.O.A.T.F. Himself, and the extra
eight degrees which then appeared were but rearrangements of the old
twenty-five degrees of the Rite of Perfection. Now that more advanced egos had
come into possession of the degrees, a fuller manifestation of the power behind
was permitted; and since then the Scottish Rite, though its rituals have been
altered in various countries and in various interests, has become the most
important and splendid of all Masonic Obediences.
THE SPREAD OF THE
SCOTTISH RITE
We may here refer
back to the third document in the Golden Book, the patent granted to De
Grasse-Tilly by the new Supreme Council 33° in Charleston in 1802, only a few
months after its formation, which certifies that he has been tested in all the
degrees of the Rite and authorizes him to erect Lodges, Chapters, Councils and
Consistories in both hemispheres, creating him Sovereign Grand Commander of a
Supreme Council for the Antilles for life. It is signed by Dalcho, De la Hogue
and others, who all describe themselves as Kadosh, Prince of the Royal Secret,
Sov. Gr. Inspector 33°.
770The Scottish
Rite was introduced by the Comte de Grasse-Tilly into France (1804); from
France it passed into Italy (1805), Spain (1811) and Belgium (1817). In 1824
the Supreme Council for Ireland was formed with jurisdiction over the official
degrees of White Masonry only, because of the previous existence of Chapters
and Lodges of Rose-Croix and Kadosh belonging to the old Rite of Perfection.
The Supreme Council of England and Wales was formed in 1845, and that of
Scotland a year later.
In America in 1812
a working jeweller named Joseph Cerneau established in Boston what he called a
Sovereign Grand Consistory of the United States. Cerneau possessed the
necessary succession, and so was able to pass on the actual powers; but as he
had no mandate from the Council of Emperors the Charleston Supreme Council
denounced his proceedings as irregular, and themselves appointed a Supreme
Council for the Northern Jurisdiction a year later. Supreme Councils deriving
from Cerneau still exist, though they are not recognized by bodies holding the
Charleston succession. Both lines, however, are valid.
The rite has
spread into almost all countries of the world, and does an incalculable amount
of good to thousands upon thousands of Brn., even though but few derive from it
the full possibilities of spiritual advancement which lie behind it. But to be
brought, however unconsciously, into touch with so holy an influence must
unquestionably uplift and bless even the least sensitive; and some touch of its
hidden glory is conferred upon all.
THE Co-Masonic
Order
THE RESTORATION OF
AN ANCIENT LANDMARK
THE Co-Masonic
Order is distinguished from the rest of the Masonic world by the admission of
women to Masonry on equal terms with men. In this it is introducing no
innovation into the body of Masonry, but rather restoring one of the ancient
landmarks which was forgotten during the confusion of the Mysteries with the
operative Masonry of the Middle Ages. In both Egypt and Greece, as we have
seen, women were admitted to the Mysteries, and were able to penetrate into the
inmost sanctuaries as well as men. The officials of the masculine Craft are for
the most part against their admission to-day. They have been most strongly
impressed, and quite rightly so, with the paramount importance of keeping the
rituals and customs unchanged; but they quite wrongly regard the admission of
women as a serious departure from ancient usage. Co-Masons are equally urgent
in their respect for the traditions; but in this matter they prefer to follow
the older custom, which has also the added merit of being logical and fair.
Since reincarnation is a fact, there is no difference between the ego or soul
of a man and that of a woman; and we do not see any reason why in a particular
birth, because he happens in the course of his evolution to occupy a woman's
body, that ego should be deprived of the advantages of initiation into the
sacred Mysteries of Masonry.
THE SUCCESSION OF
CO-MASONRY
The Co-Masonic
Order derives its succession of Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General of the 33°
from certain Brn. belonging to the Supreme Council of France, founded by the
Comte de Grasse-Tilly in 180. In his booklet, Universal Co-Freemasonry: What is
it?, the Very Illustrious Bro. J. I. Wedgwood, 33° gives the following account
of its foundation, which he derives from the official minutes of the Supreme
Council published in Dr. Georges Martin's Etude de la Franc-Maconnerie Mixte et
de son Organisation, and from Transaction No.1 of the Dharma Lodge, Benares:
Our own Order of
Universal Co-Freemasonry, or, to give it its French title, L'Ordre Maconnique
Mixte Internationale, is the first Masonic body which has aimed at establishing
a world-wide order to which women should be admitted on equal terms with men.
Its career began in the year . There existed a body styling itself La Grande
Loge Symbolique Ecossaise de France. It consisted of various Craft Lodges which
had broken loose from the Supreme Council in France and constituted themselves
into a Grand Lodge. It was only anticipating what the other Craft Lodges under
the Supreme Council did in 1894-97, when they organized themselves into the now
existing Grand Lodge of France, and absorbed into themselves, with one
exception, the Lodges of La Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise de France. This
latter body, with which we are concerned, almost at once received recognition
from the Grand Orient of France .
The principle
which this particular schism espoused was that of the autonomy of Craft Lodges,
summed up in the phrase Le Macon libre dans la Loge libre - a principle sound
enough in the main, but, it may at once be confessed, obviously not capable of
application outside certain wide limits. Still, it has always received much
recognition in France, ever since French Masonry broke away from the parent
English stem. One of the Lodges holding from this body was called Les Libres
Penseurs, and met at Pecq, a little place in the Department of Seine et Oise.
This Lodge - belonging to a then recognized Masonic Obedience - decided to initiate
a woman, a certain Mdlle. Maria Deraismes, a well-known authoress and lecturer,
noted for her service to humanitarian and feminist movements. They did so, in
the presence of a large assembly, on January 14th, . The Right Worshipful
Master, Bro. Houbron, 18°, justified
their experiment as having the welfare and highest interests of humanity at
heart, and as being a perfectly logical application of the principle of 'A Free
Mason in a Free Lodge'. The Lodge was of course suspended for putting the
family motto into practice .
780For some time
Sister Maria Deraismes did nothing in the way of extending to others the
Masonic privileges she had received. Eventually she yielded to the persuasions
of friends, and notably of Dr. Georges Martin. This latter gentleman was a
member of the Lodge Les Libres Penseurs when Mdlle. Deraismes was initiated. He
gave her his staunch support and the benefit of his wide Masonic experience
throughout her Masonic career. Upon his retirement from political life - he had
been a Senator - he devoted his energies to the helping of humanity through our
Order . On March 14th, 1893, Sister Deraismes initiated a number of ladies, in
the presence of Dr. Martin, and on April 4th of the same year La Grande Loge
Symbolique Ecossaise de France, Le Droit Humain, came into being .
In 1900 the new
Grand Lodge, with a view to extending its ramifications into other countries,
found it desirable to work the higher degrees. Aided, therefore, by Brethren in
possession of the 33° the body was raised from a Craft Grand Lodge to a Supreme
Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Mme. Marie Martin, the close
friend and collaborator of Mdlle. Deraismes, succeeded upon the death of the
latter to the leadership of the movement, Dr.
Georges Martin holding the office of Grand Orateur, and she occupied her
exalted position with distinction, with dignity, and with utter devotion, until
her demise in .
There are Lodges
in France, Belgium, England, Scotland, India, Australia, South Africa, America
(over 100), Holland, Java, Switzerland, and Norway.
We need add only a
few words about the movement in England. The first of our English lady members
to enter the Order was our highly esteemed Sister Francesca Arundale. Mrs.
Annie Besant, feeling that a Masonic movement open to men and women alike could
be made a powerful force for good in the world, who had been offered initiation
by Mdlle. Deraismes, learned of the continuance of the Order from Miss
Arundale, and sought initiation in Paris. She was subsequently created
Vice-President Grand Master of the Supreme Council and Deputy for Great Britain
and its Dependencies. The first Co-Masonic Lodge was consecrated in London in
September, 1902, by the grand Officers of the Supreme Council, under the title
of Human Duty, No. .* (*Op. cit., p. 25 ff.) (See Plates X and XI, following p.
.)
With the advent of
Dr. Annie Besant to the leadership of the Order in the British Empire, the
direct link between Masonry and the Great White Lodge which has ever stood
behind it (though all unknown to the majority of the Brn.) was once again
reopened; and the H.O.A.T.F. has taken a keen personal interest in its
development. The ancient English and Scottish succession of Installed Masters,
Installed Mark Masters and Installed First Principals of the Holy Royal Arch of
Jerusalem was introduced into Co-Masonry by sympathetic
Brn. from the
masculine Obediences, and these degrees now form part of our British Co-Masonic
workings. (Plate XII, following p. .)
THE CO-MASONIC
RITUALS
In 1916, by order
of the H.O.A.T.F., the ritual of the Craft degrees was finally revised in
accordance with their ancient occult meaning, this ritual being based upon the
English and Scottish workings. Certain features, such as the recognition of the
elementals and the three symbolical journeys, were introduced from the French
Craft rituals worked under the auspices of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite - with further modifications from occult sources. This ritual was approved
by the H.O.A.T.F. Himself, who deigned to work it in His own Lodge, afterwards
making certain suggestions, which were of course immediately adopted.
In 1923 He further
most graciously authorized an English translation of His Latin ritual of the
Rose-Croix, to be worked in those Sovereign Chapters R . C who desired to make
use of it. The celebration of this ceremonial has enormously quickened the
occult strength of our Chapters; and though as yet we cannot hope to equal the
old Egyptian working, we are able to some extent to call down and pour forth
upon the world the splendid powers of the Rosy Cross.
In 1925 the
H.O.A.T.F. was kind enough to allow the use of a Mark Ritual which had been
brought into line with the inner meaning of the degree; and in the same year He
directed that a ritual of the Holy Royal Arch should be prepared, embodying
certain suggestions which He Himself had deigned to make. Thus step by step the
whole working is being revised in accordance with the ancient knowledge, and
the way to the restoration of the Mysteries is being prepared.
790THE FUTURE OF
MASONRY
Masonry must
surely have a wonderful part to play in the civilization of the future. Not for
naught have the old hallowed rites been preserved in secret and the immemorial
powers of the Mysteries transmitted throughout the ages to our modern world of
the twentieth century; for we stand to-day on the threshold of a new era, which
will be heralded by the coming forth once more of the World Teacher, the Lord
of Love Himself, who taught in Palestine two thousand years ago. We have seen
that human evolution takes place according to a cyclic law; race succeeds race,
and subrace follows subrace according to the plan of the Great Architect of the
Universe, working in this world through that White Lodge which is the guardian
of humanity. The time has come for the blossoming of a new subrace, the sixth
of our great Aryan race, and it is already beginning to appear in North
America, Australia and other lands. In that subrace, as in all the others,
there will be egos of different temperaments; some no doubt will seek their
inspiration in the liberal forms of Catholic Christianity, but others will
find themselves attracted to the philosophic and ceremonial teaching formerly
given in the Mysteries of Egypt which are the heritage of the Masonic
brotherhood.
The coming of the
World Teacher has always in the past marked a revival or an inauguration of the
Mysteries. Thoth in Egypt, Zoroaster in Persia, Orpheus in Greece - each of
these mighty Messengers of the White Lodge, who were yet one Messenger
appearing under different names and in different forms, left behind Him a
glorious rite of initiation to lead men to His feet after He had gone. That
great Teacher of mankind passed from human sight as Gautama the Lord Buddha;
but the sceptre of the Lord of Love was placed by the spiritual KING in the
hands of His successor, whom to-day we revere as the Lord Christ, whose coming
we await with hearts filled with longing love.
He, too, will
surely take the sacred vessels of the Mysteries and fill them anew with His own
wonderful life; He, too, will mould them according to the needs of His people
and the age in which they live. For the influence of the sixth ray, the ray of
devotion which inspired the Christian mystics and the glorious Gothic
architecture of the Middle Ages is passing away, and the seventh ray is
beginning to dominate the world - the ray of ceremonial magic which brings the
especial cooperation of the Angelic hosts, of which Masonry itself with its
many coloured pageant of rites is a splendid manifestation. Thus in the coming
days when the Lord of Love who is our Most Wise Sovereign and the Prince of
Sovereign Princes will visit yet again His holy sanctuaries - guarded
throughout the ages by His great Disciple, the Prince-Adept of the seventh ray
and the Master of our Craft - we may look for a restoration to the worthy, and
to the worthy alone, not only of the full splendour of ceremonial initiation,
once more to be a true vehicle of the Hidden Light, but also of that secret
wisdom of the Mysteries which has long been forgotten in the outer Lodges and
Chapters of the Brotherhood.
Such surely is the
destiny that awaits our beloved Order in the future; such the splendour that
will transfigure the Craft in the years that are to come, until within its
temple walls once more is raised - not only in symbol but in actual fact - the
ladder which stretches between earth and
heaven, between men and the Grand Lodge above, to lead them from the darkness
of the world to the fullness of light in God, to the Rose which ever blossoms
at the heart of the Cross, to the Blazing Star whose shining brings peace and
strength and blessing to all the worlds.
TRANSMUTEMINI,
TRANSMUTEMINI DE LAPIDIBUS MORTUIS IN
LAPIDES VIVOS
PHILOSOPHICOS S ... M ... I ... B ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX I
THE DEGREES OF THE
RITE OF PERFECTION
COMPARED WITH
THOSE OF
THE ANCIENT AND
ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE
APPENDIX I
LIST OF TWENTY
FIVE DEGREES
WORKED BY THE
COUNCIL OF
EMPERORS OF THE EAST AND WEST
1758
LIST OF DEGREES OF THE RITE OF PERFECTION
LIST OF CORRESPONDING DEGREES OF THE
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE
1° Apprentice
2° Companion
3° Master
4° Secret Master
5° Perfect Master
6° Intimate Secretary
7°
Intendant of the Buildings
8° Provost and Judge
9° Master Elect of Nine
10° Master Elect of Fifteen
11° Illustrious Elect Chief of the Twelve
Tribes
12° Grand Master Architect
13° Knight Royal Arch
14° Grand Elect, Ancient Perfect Master
15° Knight of the Sword or of the East
16° Prince of Jerusalem
17 ° Knight of the East and of the West
18° Knight Rose-Croix
19° Grand Pontiff or Master ad Vitam
20° Grand Patriarch Noachite
21° Grand Master of the Key of Masonry
22 ° Prince of Libanus, Knight Royal Arch
alternatively Royal Axe**
23° Knight of the Sun, Prince Adept,
Chief of the Grand Consistory.
24° Illustrious Chief Grand Commander of
the White and Black Eagle, Grand Elect Kadosh
25° Most Illustrious Sovereign Prince of
Masonry, Grand Knight, Sublime Knight Commander of the Royal Secret
Entered Apprentice
Fellow Craft
Master Mason
The
same
"
"
8°
7°
The same
Illustrious Master Elect of Fifteen
Sublime Knight Elected
The same
Royal Arch of Enoch
Grand Scottish Knight of the Sacred Vault
(of James VI)* or Sublime Mason
The same
"
"
Sovereign Prince of Rose-Croix
Grand Pontiff or Sublime Scotch Mason
21° Noachite or Prussian Chevalier
20° Venerable Grand Master of Symbolic
Lodges
The same
28°
30°
32°
* This is clearly
a later title, and in the Master the Count's list the degree is given as Grand
Elect, Perfect and Sublime Mason.
** This is
obviously a confusion in sound, the word being Hache or Axe. Count Goblet
D'Alviella has pointed out both in this connection and in that of the Royal
Arch that the names in French show that they are not of French origin. The
French would be Chevalier de l'Arche Royale, not du Royale Arche, had the
degrees originated in France. It seems quite possible that this may be true of
the Royal Arch of Enoch, and that the Royale Hache may have been made to agree.
The Brn. of the
highest degree were termed the Council of the Emperors of the East and West,
Sovereign Prince Masons, Substitutes-General of the Royal Art, Grand
Surveillants and Officers of the Grand Sovereign Lodge of S. John of Jerusalem;
and the rite which they worked was called
the Rite of Perfection or of Heredom.
There was also an
Office or Rank of Grand Inspector, though there was no degree of Sovereign
Grand Inspector-General until the beginning of the nineteenth century.
On the formation
of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston in 1801, eight further Degrees were
added to the 25° to make the total of 33°. It is supposed that these were drawn
from Continental sources. Most of them were previously worked under a Grand
Chapter of Prince Masons in Ireland. They received the approval of the
H.O.A.T.F.
These are:
23° Chief of the
Tabernacle
24° Prince of the
Tabernacle
25° Knight of the
Brazen Serpent
26° Prince of
Mercy
27° Sovereign
Commander of the Temple
29° Grand Scottish
Knight of St. Andrew
31° Grand Inquisitor
Commander
33° Sovereign
Grand Inspector-General
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX II
TABLE OF PRINCIPAL
MASONIC EVENTS FROM 1717
NOTE
The history of
Freemasonry, and more especially of its higher degrees and what are called the
side degrees, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is so
extraordinarily confused and questionable that I think it is advisable to
arrange its principal events in chronological order, in tabular form, and in
parallel columns, tracing its development in England, on the Continent of
Europe, and in North America respectively. The organization whose story we are
trying to follow is after all a secret organization; it moves steadily on its
way in the privacy of its Lodge rooms, and it is only rarely and as it were by
accident that any reference to it or to its proceedings appears in the light of
day. Little wonder that accounts are scrappy, and difficult to reconcile one
with another; we are dealing with sporadic and largely accidental
manifestations, and no outer indication has before been given, so far as I
know, to the inner clue which makes all the confusion clear. That clue is of
course the existence of the H.O.A.T.F., who is acting all the time for Masonry
the part popularly assigned to Providence - watching over it, guiding its
activities in this direction or that, stimulating it where it needs
stimulation, bringing it to the surface in one place, and letting it sink out
of sight in another, and seeing that, in one way or another, its existence is
maintained and its light ever kept burning. He is the true Hidden Life in
Freemasonry to whom my previous volume referred; it is His energy flowing
through it which has kept this wonderful body alive; while He continues to
inspire it, we need have no fear for its future.
TABLE OF PRINCIPAL
MASONIC EVENTS FROM 1717
DATE
GREAT BRITAIN
FRANCE
AMERICA
1717
Foundation of the Grand Lodge of England
Clermont Degrees and Rites of Heredom
practised privately.
Masonry of various rites existing but
unorganized, introduced by settlers.
1722
First reference to degrees higher than
Blue Degrees. Robert Samber.*
1723
References to the Arch and Mark of a Master in A Mason's Examination,
published in The Flying Post.
1729
Ephraim Chambers in Cyclopaedia referred
to Masons "who have all the character of Rosicrucians".
1732
Introduction of the English tradition of Craft Masonry.
1733
First mention of a Scotch Mason's Lodge in
Dr. Rawlinson's List of Lodges. Also in same List the first mention in print of
a Master Mason's Lodge was made.
A Lodge of S. John founded in Boston.
1735
Oration of the Provincial Grand Master of
Durham quoting twelve verses on the use by the Jews of the Sword and Trowel;
now used in the rhymed ritual of the Royal Order of Scotland.
1737
Baron Scheffer, first Grand Master of
Sweden, received the Three S. John's Degrees in Paris, and also two Scottish
Degrees. Chevalier Ramsay's famous Oration in Paris gave an impetus to
high-degree movement in France.
1738
Anderson's Book of Constitutions (Second
Edition) published.
First condemnation of Freemasons by Papal
Bull In Eminente.
Duc d'Antin succeeded Lord Derwentwater
as Grand Master of France.
A Master's Lodge established in Boston.
1740
An itinerant peddler of the Royal Arch
degree is said to have propagated it in Ireland, claiming that it was practiced
in York and London.
Rise of Scots Lodges in all parts of
France. Many rituals existed, exceedingly diverse in character. Chief theme the
Recovery of a Lost Word in a Secret Vault by Scottish Crusaders. Scots Masters
claimed extraordinary privileges in Blue Lodges.
1741
Masons of Lyons are said to have
introduced the Kadosh Degree, but there is no direct evidence of this.
1743
Stirling Rock Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland
has Minutes dating from this year.
First decisive reference to Royal Arch in
Ireland in contemporary report of proceedings of a Lodge at Youghal.
Baron von Hund was received into the Order
of the Temple by "the Knight of the Red Feather," and presented to
Prince Charles Edward Stuart in Paris.
1744
Dr. Dassigny's Serious and Impartial
Enquiry referred to an Assembly of Royal Arch Masons at York, whence the degree
was introduced into Ireland. Known and practised also in London "some
small space before," and described as "an organized body of men who
had passed the Chair".
1746
Regulation of fees at Swalwell Lodge for
the admission of Harodim; cf. the first degree of the Royal Order, i. e., HRDM,
the second being RSYCRS. Five Brn. made Scots Masons in the Old Lodge at
Salisbury.
1751
Formation of the Grand Lodge of the
"Ancients" who accused the "Moderns" of having altered the
ritual and changed the landmarks.
About this date was founded the Mere-Loge
Ecossaise, working a number of degrees not belonging to our Scottish Rite.
Marseilles.
This was probably descended from a Scots
Lodge which had assumed the right to constitute other Lodges. Among these
degrees we find Rosecroix and the degree of Knight of the Sun. These do not
appear before 1765, however, and appear before 1765, however, and appear before
1765, however, and were probably taken from the Emperors. Certain of the other
degrees all found in the Rite of Memphis.
1753
Under date December 22, the Minutes of
Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia, are said to contain the earliest known record
of the Royal Arch degree in actual working.
1754
Foundation of the Rite of the Strict
Observance, claiming unknown Superiors, said by its founder to derive from
Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1743, and hence from the Scottish Templars.
This system very popular in Teutonic Masonry.
Foundation of the Chapter of Clermont,
said to have worked Templar Degrees superimposed upon the Scots Degrees.
Composed of high members of the nobility.
College de Valois of Knights of the East.
Composed of bourgeois.
1755
May have worked ten degrees. In rivalry to
Chapter of Clermont. Grand Lodge of France recognized the privileges claimed by
Scots Masons.
1757
Scots Lodges and Degrees of Masonic
Chivalry condemned by Grand Lodge, Maningham Letters, as innovations.
1758
Under the direction of the H.O.A.T.F. the
Chapter of Clermont was expanded into the COUNCIL OF THE EMPERORS OF THE EAST
AND WEST. This was Composed of some of the highest nobility of the country. It
worked the Rite of Perfection or Heredom; a list of its degrees will be found
in Appendix I.
1761
The Grand Lodge of All England at York
revived. Said t0 have recognized Templars and Royal Arch besides Blue Degrees.
Stephen Morin received from the COUNCIL OF
THE EMPERORS the rank of Inspector-General and a commission to establish the
Rite of Perfection in America.
1763
Stephen Morin founded the Rite of
Perfection in San Domingo.
1766
A Chapter of True and Ancient Rose Croix
Masons was established at Marburg, Germany, by F.J.W. Schroder.
1769
Earliest known reference to the Mark
Degree occurs in the Minute Book of a Royal Arch Chapter in Portsmouth.
1770
Stephen Morin created a Council of Princes
of the Royal Secret 25° at Kingston, Jamaica.
1772
Louis Claude de S. Martin created Knight of
the Rose-Croix by Marlines de Pasqually, at Bordeaux.
(Period of the Jews)
Morin conferred the rank of
Inspector-General upon Franklin of Jamaica, he in turn upon Moses Hayes of
Boston, and he upon Spitzer of Charleston. All these Inspectors met at
Philadelphia to confer the Inspectorship upon Moses Cohen of Jamaica, who in
turn gave it to Isaac Long.
1777
A Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch
established in London.
1786
At some period during the latter half of
the eighteenth century the Rite of Perfection was taken to England, and worked
in Templar Conclaves. (Yarker gathered up the threads of this succession in his
Supreme Council 33°).
These were also introduced into Ireland
before the formation of the Mother Supreme Council at Charleston, and were
worked under a Grand Chapter of Prince Masons and Templar Grand Con clave. The
degrees of Kadosh and Rose-Croix were thus already in possession when the
Supreme Council of Ireland was introduced.
Institution by the Grand Orient of France
of the French Rite of 7°, the highest being Rose-Croix. The Rite of Perfection
absorbed into the Grand Orient.
1791
THE REVOLUTION.
Rite of Perfection disappeared from
public view.
At some time during this period the myth
of the formation of the 33° by Frederick the Great arose and the alleged Grand
Constitutions of1762 and 1786 were produced. Who was originally responsible for
these is not known, but there is clearly no foundation for them, though they
were widely accepted as genuine.
1796
Isaac Long conferred the Inspector ship
upon Comte de Grasse Tilly, founder of the Supreme Council of France, upon his father-in-law,
De la Hogue, and a number of others.
1801
Formation of the MOTHER SUPREME COUNCIL OF
THE WORLD at Charleston. Eight degrees were added to the 25 of the Rite of
Perfection.
1802
A Scottish Rite of 33° is said to have
been formed in Paris.
De Grasse Tilly and De la Hogue formed a
Supreme Council 33° in Port-au-Prince.
1804
Formation of the Supreme Council 33° of
France by De Grasse-Tilly in Paris. This body underwent various vicissitudes,
but is now flourishing.
1805
(Supreme Council of Italy formed).
1810
The Degree of Installed Master sanctioned
by the Regular Grand Lodge of England. The Ceremony was ranked as a landmark,
and Masters of London Lodges were cited to appear for Installation as Rulers in
the Craft.
Patent said to have been granted by
Lechangeur to Marc Bedarride for the promulgation of the Rite of Mizraim.
1811
(Formation of the Supreme Council of Spain.)
1812
A working jeweller named Joseph Cerneau
established what he called a Sovereign Grand Consistory of the United States.
Cerneau possessed the necessary succession, but had no mandate from the
COUNCIL OF EMPERORS, SO the Charleston Supreme Council denounced his
proceedings as irregular.
1813
Union between the "Ancients" and
the "Moderns".
Formation of the United Grand Lodge of
England, recognizing three degrees
including the Holy Royal Arch.
Supreme Council 33° of the Northern
Jurisdiction of the U.S.A. formed.
1817
(Formation of the Supreme Council of
Belgium at Brussels).
1821
Foundation of the Grand Lodge of France.
1824
Formation of the Supreme Council of
Ireland, with jurisdiction over 31°, 32°, and 33° only, because of the previous
existence of the 30° and the 18°. The 28° Prince Adept, Knight of the Sun,
which also belonged to the Rite of Perfection, is said to be still worked in
Ireland.
1838
The Rite of Memphis introduced into Paris
as a system of 95°. Marconis the younger elected Grand Hierophant.
1845
Formation of the Supreme Council of
England and Wales.
1846
Formation of the Supreme Council of
Scotland.
1856
Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons formed
in London.
1862
Rite of Memphis was placed by its Grand
Hierophant under the Grand Orient of France. He resigned his powers over it.
Sovereign Sanctuary 95° of the Rite of
Memphis consecrated by the Grand Hierophant, Harry J. Seymour, Sovereign Grand
Master 96°.
1865
The Degrees of the Rite of Memphis were
reduced from 95° to 33°, the essential degrees being preserved.
The Grand Orient suppressed the higher degrees
of the Rite, but allowed a few Craft Lodges to continue.
Division in the Sovereign Sanctuary of
America. Harry J. Seymour agreed to the reduction. Calvin C. Burt formed a
clandestine Sovereign Sanctuary of the Egyptian Masonic Rite of Memphis,
working 96°. This body seems to have sold the degrees shamelessly, and its
history is of the most sordid character.
(Harry J. Seymour also inherited the
Cerneau Tradition of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite 33°, and was
Sovereign Grand Commander of a Supreme Council 33° deriving from him.
1872
The Sovereign Sanctuary for Great Britain
and Ireland was consecrated by Harry J. Seymour, John Yarker being Sovereign
Grand Master.
1875
(Convention of Supreme Councils at
Lausanne).
1876
Formation of a Supreme Grand Council
General of the Rite of Mizraim was effected within the bosom of the Sovereign
Sanctuary, Yarker as Chief of the Rite.
1879
Grand Loge Symbolique de France formed
from a secession of Rose-Croix Chapters belonging to the Supreme Council 33°
of France.
1882
Initiation of Mlle. Maria Deraismes in the
Lodge "Les Libres Penseurs," belonging to this Body. Consequent
suspension of the Lodge.
1893
Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise Mixte de
France founded by Dr. Georges Martin and Mlle. Maria Deraismes.
1900
Supreme Conseil Universel Mixte 33° formed
by Dr. Georges Martin 33° and other Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General deriving
their succession from the Supreme Coucil of France.
1902
Mrs. Annie Besant was initiated into
Co-Masonry. Consecration of first Co-Masonic Lodge in England. (Human Duty No.
.)
Co-Masonry introduced into America, both
Craft and higher degrees.
During the next few years the English
Succession of Installed Masters was introduced into Co-Masonry by Installed
Masters of the English Craft. The Mark and the Holy Royal Arch were likewise
introduced. The Craft Rituals were brought into line with English workings.
The higher degrees were also introduced
into English Co-Masonry.
1914
The Rt. Rev. J. I. Wedgwood received the
degrees of Prince Patriarch Grand Conservator 33°, 95° of the Rite of Memphis;
Absolute Grand Sovereign 33°, 90°, of the Rite of Mizraim; and Sovereign Grand
Inspector General 33° of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Cerneau) by
Yarker in person.
*In Robert
Samber's Dedication in a Hermetic Tact entitled "Long Livers"
appearing in 1712 under the pseudonym of Eugenius Philalethes,
Junior, and
addressed to members of the Grand Lodge of England, we find what many have
thought to be an allusion to higher degrees. Samber distinguishes between those
"who are not far illuminated" and those "who have greater light;
' who are "of the higher class; and "are illuminated with the
sublimest mysteries and profoundest secrets of Masonry"; and he speaks to
those Masons of the higher degree which is found "behind the veil".
Bro. A. E. Waite, who has deeply studied the alchemical tradition, holds that
these quotations refer rather to progress in the secrets of alchemy; yet even
if that be so, the remarks are of interest, only five years after the
foundation, in a tract actually dedicated to the Grand Lodge.
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