The world brought to you by: THE FREEMASONS

They run it all,they built it all,and they have the secrets you'll never know.

"FREEMASONRY AND THE ANCIENT WISDOM"

Members of Masonic Study groups are naturally keen students of the origin and history
of the Craft, and a number of serious minded enquirers frankly admit that a perusal of
the available literature on the subject has left them confused and unconvinced. In this
paper, therefore, it is proposed to trace a rough outline of a movement which is as old
as humanity itself and the purpose and doctrine of which are still faithfully if very
rudimentarily preserved in our Masonic system. By this means an endeavour will be
made to answer the main questions asked by many students who are genuinely seeking
for fuller enlightenment, such as; What was the nature of the Ancient Mysteries which
modern Freemasonry is claimed to perpetuate? Can we justify the need for their
perpetuation today? For what purpose was Initiation instituted? Did it at any time serve
any real purpose or can it do so now? On a satisfactory solution of these problems
depends, to a great extent, a comprehension of the aims and ideals of the Masonic
Order.

Now one of the first things to impress itself upon any student of Masonic literature and
comparative religion is the remarkable-presence of common factors, common beliefs,
doctrines, practices and symbols, in the religions of all races alike, whether ancient or
modern, civilised or barbarian, Christian or pagan. However separated from others by
time or distance, however intellectualised or primitive, and however wide-their
differences in important respects, each people is found to have employed and still to
be employing certain ideas, symbols and practices in common with every other. A close
examination of Masonic literature confirms and amplifies this impression, for the student
will find that numerous authors connected with the Craft have demonstrated that there
isa close correspondence to be found in the various apparently unrelated systems, and
they have further emphasised how ancient and universal are the ideas, symbols and
practices which are embodied in our modern system of Freemasonry. There is one
thing, however, that the student invariably has great difficulty in determining, and this
is the reason for the antiquity and universality so clearly in evidence according to the
existing records. It is unfortunate that the majority of those who have written
treaties on Masonic history and purpose have neglected to give an explanation on this
point, and since it furnishes us with the essential clue to the entire problem of the
genesis, the history, and the reason for the existence of Freemasonry, it is so important
to clear up the matter before proceeding with the general outline of our subject.

If one perseveres with research and reflection, it will become apparent to the student
that the universality and uniformity noted by historians are due to the fact that at one
time, long back in the world's past, there was implanted in the minds of the whole
human family - which was then, doubtless, much more concentrated than at present -
a root- doctrine in regard to the nature and destiny of the soul of man and its relation
to the Deity. In all Scriptures and cosmologies the tradition is universal of a "Golden
Age", an age of comparative innocence, wisdom and spirituality, in which racial unity
and individual happiness and enlightenment prevailed; in which there was that open
vision for want of which it is recorded that a people perisheth, but in virtue of which man
were once in conscious conversation with the unseen worlds and were shepherded,
taught and guided by the "gods" or discarnate superintendents of the infant race, who
imparted to them the sure principles upon which their spiritual welfare and evolution
depended. The testimony concerning this "Golden Age" is found to be recorded in all
languages, and it is unanimously stated to be the period of the early beginnings of the
Human Race. In these early days we learn that the psychic and physical intellect in man
was dormant, and we are told that it was on this account that infant humanity was
guided and taught under the direct superintendence of divine Teachers and Instructors.
It is of particular significance to Freemasons to find that tradition affirms that it was
under the guidance of these Instructors that humanity was taught its first notions of all
the arts and sciences, and that it was They who laid the foundation-stone of those
ancient civilizations which so sorely puzzle our modern generation of scholars. This will
account for the fact that no matter how far back into the night of time
archaeological or other investigations are extended, high stages of civilisation are found,
each having an elaborate numerical system; where, according to modern scientific
theories, only the most primitive conditions might be expected. The presence of fully
developed numerical systems in ancient civilisations proves that the science of numbers
was not slowly evolved by primitive man learning to count on his fingers, as is popularly
supposed, and confirms the tradition of a fully elaborated system of computation which
was revealed to the priesthood of the early Races by the Spiritual Teachers of mankind.

We of today pride ourselves upon being wiser and more advanced than primitive
humanity. We assume that our ancestors lived in moral benightedness out of which we
have since gradually emerged into comparative light. All the evidence, however,
negatives these suppositions. In fact it indicates that primitive man, notwithstanding his
intellectual undevelopment according to modern standards, was spiritually conscious
and psychically perceptive to a degree undreamed of in our day. It is therefore
ourselves who, for all our cleverness and intellectual development in temporal mattes,
are nevertheless plunged in darkness and ignorance about our own nature, the invisible
world around us, and the eternal spiritual verities. We may, then, well enquire how it is
that we have departed so far from our original state, and once again tradition comes to
our assistance.

The tradition is also universal of the collective soul of the human race having sustained
a "fall" a moral declension from its true path of life and evolution, which has had the
effect of severing it almost entirely from its creative source, and which, as the ages
advanced, has involved its sinking more and more deeply into physical conditions. This
has resulted in its splitting up from a unity employing a single language into a diversity
of conflicting races of different speeches and degrees of moral advancement, and has
been accompanied by a progressive densification of the material body and a
corresponding atrophy of the spiritual consciousness. This tradition of our extrusion of
Fall, howsoever occasioned, from the more immediate precincts of Deity is so catholic
a one that it must have been a canon of the root-doctrine or protoevangel which lies at
the back of all the great religious systems of history. Antiquity and universality constitute;
of course, inadequate evidence of its truth for modern rationalism, but for the genuine
student testimony to it can be adduced from another quarter. This will be found in the
voluble sacrementalism of Nature where it is perpetuated and registered in such a
manner as will be readily discerned by the seeing eye and understanding mind. In our
day, evolution, or the perpetual tendency of things upwards, has came to be generally
accepted as a cosmic process. But does not the capacity for rising imply necessarily
an antecedent failing? The logical value of the evolutionary hypothesis, as of every
hypothesis can only be appraised by contrasting it with its antithesis, and the laws of
human logic, as Freemasons should well know, are shadows of those of the LOGOS,
the Divine Logician. The truth, then, of the Fall, has been perpetuated in our
phenomenal world by the fact that to fall is the property of everything material Purified
spirit alone is capable of ascension, of counteracting the law of gravitation, which, as
shown in the allegory of the flaming sword of the Cherubim guarding Eden, rigidly
excludes from ascending all that is unfit to inhabit a world more advanced than a
physical one. Thus the initial act in the earthly existence of every seed, and germ, and
egg, of every newborn animal and child, is to fall to the ground. At the very outset of
its career it therefore rehearses in its own form or person the primal Fall of Cosmic Spirit
into the plane of Nature, while its subsequent function is to rise and grow physically or
morally according to its kind.

So far as it affects humanity, the doctrine of the Fall, portrayed in the Biblical legend of
Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Eden, was not due, as is popularly supposed,
to the transgression of an individual, but was the result of a defect in the collective or
group-soul of the Adamic Race, and was a process covering vast cycles of time. Such
is the unanimous testimony of the Ancient Wisdom-tradition and despite its rejection by
many in our day, it is my conviction that we cannot adequately apprehend the divine
scheme unless we realise that the Fall was an incident thereof that was ordained by,
and that existed primally in the prescience of, Deity; that the descent of spirit and its
incarnation in the material world was a process as gradual as has been, and is, the rise,
the emergence, of spiritual life from within its present physical limitations. The
incarceration of spirit, therefore, in material conditions, involving, as it did and
does still, the struggle for emancipation and the knowledge of evil, was, and is, essential
and necessary to enable the spirit of man to become self-conscious of its own inherent
perfection and divinity, by undergoing an experience which is the antithesis of its own
birthright in a plane of existence which is the antipodes of its natural home. Hence it
follows that Redemption is the necessary complement of Creation, and accordingly we
find that tradition asserts that as a consequence of the Fall it was necessary and within
the Divine Providence that humanity should be redeemed and restored to its former high
estate, the restoration in turn requiring vast time cycles for its achievement. And it
required something further; It required the application of an orderly and scientific
method under skilled direction, and we may reasonably enquire; whence could come
that skill and scientific knowledge if not from the Divine and now invisible world, from
those "gods" and guardians of the erring race of whom all the ancient traditions and
sacred writings tell? Would not that skilled method be properly described if it were
termed, as in our modern Freemasonry it is termed, a "heavenly science" and a "noble
science", and would it not be welcomed in the words that Freemasons in fact use, "Hail,
Royal Art!" Those of our Brethren who here responsible for the inscription set out on the
Foundation Stone of the first Freemason's Hall, which was consecrated on the 1st, May,
1775, clearly recognised this fact, because in declaring the authority under which the
English Craft claims precedence and jurisdiction over the "whole body of Brethren
throughout the world", they re-affirmed the "Ancient Landmark" concerning the origin of
the Science in the significant words, "It comes down from Heaven".

To the spiritual guardians of primitive man, then, we must attribute the communication
of that universal science of rebuilding the fallen temple of humanity, and to this source
we must credit the distribution, in every land and among every people, of the same or
equivalent symbols, practices and doctrines. This was the one holy Catholic Religion
"throughout all the world", and it laid down the ancient and established "usages and
customs" to be followed at all times by everyone willing to accept its discipline. It was
the "Sacred Law" for the guidance of fallen humanity, a law valid from "time immemorial",
or, in other words, from the dawn of time till its sunset, and of which it is written,
"As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end".

This universal science is related to have originated in the East, for the East, in every
sense, geographically, astronomically, and spiritually, is ever the source of light
"Ex Oriente Lux" (Out of the East Light) - and as humanity itself became diffused and
distributed over the globe, to have gradually spread towards the West. The record of
this truth is retained in our modern Instruction Lectures in the cryptic phrase, "Learning
originated in the East and thence spread its benign influence towards the West" (Fourth
Section, First Lecture). During the process of the distribution of humanity there came
about that progressive densification of the material body and consequent atrophy of
spiritual perception already mentioned, and on account of this the influence of the
Wisdom-teaching became correspondingly diminished, although its principles remained
as valid and effective. To follow the course of its progress in any detail would require
a long treatise, and is therefore outside the scope of the present Paper, but it should
be noted that despite human vagaries and conceptions the Light, like that of a Master
Mason, has never been wholly extinguished, however dark the age, and according to
tradition the present age is spiritually the darkest of the dark ages. It is truly declared
that "God has never left himself without a living witness among men", and among the
witnesses to the Ancient Wisdom is the system we know as Freemasonry; a faint and
feeble flicker, perhaps, but nevertheless a true light and in the true line of succession
of the primitive doctrine.

The earliest teaching of the Mysteries traceable within historic time was in the Orient and
in the language known as Sanskrit - a name itself significant and appropriate, for it
means Holy Writ or "Sanctum Scriptum"; and for the very great lights on the Ancient
Wisdom one must still refer to the religious and philosophical scriptures of India, which
was in its spiritual and temporal prime when modern Europe was frozen beneath an
ice-cup. But races of men, like individuals, have their infancy, manhood and old age;
they are but units, upon a larger scale than the individual, for furthering the general
life-purpose. When a given race has served or failed in that purpose, the stewardship
of the Mysteries passes on to other and more effectual hands. The next great
torch-bearer of the Light of the world was Egypt, which after many centuries of spiritual
supremacy, in turn became the arid desert it now is both spiritually and materially,
leaving nevertheless a mass of structural and written relics still testifying to its
possession of the Doctrine in the days of its glory. From Egypt, as civilisations
developed in adjoining countries, minor centres for impacting the knowledge were
instituted in Chaldea, Persia, Greece and Asia Minor, and a record of this diffusion is
preserved in the V. of the S.L., for the EXODUS is, in one of its many allusions, a
witness to the passing on of the catholic mysteries from Egypt to new and virgin regions
for their enlightenment.

Of these various translations those that concern us chiefly are two; the one to Greece,
the other to Palestine. We know from the V. of the S.L., that Moses was an initiate of the
Egyptian Mysteries and became learned in all its wisdom, while the writings of the
Alexandrian Philosopher Philo Judaeus, called Philo the Jew, inform us that in Egypt
Moses became "skilled in Music, Geometry, Arithmetic, Hieroglyphics and the whole
circle of the arts and sciences". In other words he became in a real sense a Master
Mason and as such, qualified himself for his subsequent great task of leadership of the
Hebrew people and the formulating of their religious system and rule of life as laid down
in the Pentateuch. The Mosaic system continued, as we know, along the channel
indicated in the books of the Old Testament, and then after many centuries, effloresced
in the greatest of all expressions of the Mysteries, as disclosed in the Gospels of the
New Testament, or New Witness, involving the enfoldment, comprehension, and in
gathering of the religious past of the whole world, centralised under the Supreme Grand
Mastership of Him who is called the Light of the World, and embodying all the
characteristics, legends, and symbols hitherto appertaining to the central figures of
preceding dispensations, proclaiming the unity of all human aspiration, and formulating
in one grand system the doctrines of both the East and West.

Concurrently with the existence of the Hebrew Mysteries under the Mosaic dispensation,
the great Greek school was developing, which originating in the Orphic religion,
culminated and came to a focus at Delphi and generated the philosophic wisdom
associated with Athens and the Periclean age. Greece was the spiritual descendant of
both India and Egypt, and we know that the great Initiate who is accorded the title of
Pythagoras journeyed to India before being received in Egypt to take his final initiation
prior to founding the school at Crotona associated with him. Plato also tells us that
aspirants for initiation visited Egypt before promoting spiritual advancement in Greece.

It will not be possible to deal adequately with all the Mystery-systems in this Paper,
although for purposes of illustration in regard to our present subject a reference will
be made to one of the most famous of them, the Eleusinian, which existed in Greece
for several centuries. The word "Eleusis" means light, and therefore initiation into the
Mysteries of Eleusis proclaimed the quest of the aspirant for light, in precisely the same
sense as the Freemason today is made to declare that "Light" is the predominant wish"
of his heart. In alternative terms, the candidate sought to be endued with "a competency
of the Divine wisdom", and was prepared to voluntarily submit himself to a process
whereby he became transformed from the natural state into a spiritual state. Initiation,
therefore, meant the gearing of the consciousness of the candidate to a new and higher
principle, the making of a new man in the sense of attaining a new method of life and
a new outlook upon the universe. Speaking of this process St. Paul writes in his Epistle
to the Ephesians. "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness". This process
of "putting on the new man" spoken of by St. Paul in the 4th Chapter of his Epistle to
the Ephesians (verses 23 and 24) involves our comprehension of the esoteric or spiritual
interpretation of an Immaculate Conception, or, in other words, the bringing to birth of
the Divine Principle to function within the organism of the natural man. In Freemasonry
this mystical birth is reproduced by the name "Lewis", which is traditionally associated
with the Craft. The word "Lewis" is an excellent example of the cryptic language
deliberately employed by the compilers of our Ritual, for on close examination
it will be found to be a corruption of Eleusis and other Greek and Latin names indicating
Light. Hence it is that in our Instruction Lectures "Lewis" is said to designate "the son
of a Freemason", but assuredly this has no reference to human parentage and sonship.
It refers to the mystical birth of the Divine Light, the Light of the World, in oneself; as a
familiar Scriptural text has it, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given", truly an
exalted parentage. The Instruction Lectures further describe a "Lewis" as something
which "when dovetailed into a stone forms a clamp and enables the Mason to raise
great weights to certain heights, while fixing them on their proper bases", all of which
is a concealed way of expressing the fact that, when the Light of Divine Wisdom is
brought forward from man's submerged depths and firmly grafted or dovetailed into his
natural organism, he then becomes able easily to grapple with difficulties, problems and
"weights" of all kinds which to the ordinary man are insuperable.

In the time that the Eleusinian Mysteries flourished as a public institution it was regarded
as essential by the cultured to apply for initiation, on the grounds that the training and
instruction were religiously conducive to the making of good men and good citizens,
and it is worthy of mention that in our day substantially the same message has been
convoyed to the popular world through the medium of the public press by the Aims and
Relations Committee of the United Grand Lodge of England. In former times, however,
the principles of the Initiation science were not communicated to candidates, merely by
the discharge of certain ceremonial formalities, and educated men applied to enter the
Mysteries in the same way that in our day students go into residence at a University and
are required to graduate. The future development and value of the Masonic Order as
a moral force in society will depend, therefore, upon a revival, in a form adapted to
modern conditions, of the ancient Wisdom-teaching and also of the practice of those
Mysteries which became prescribed fifteen centuries ago, but of which modern
Freemasonry is the direct and representative descendant.

At the time when the Mysteries flourished, accepted candidates were graded according
to their moral efficiency and their intellectual or spiritual stature. For a period of years
they underwent disciplinary intellectual exercises and bodily asceticism, during which
they were subjected to periodical tests in order to determine their fitness to proceed
to the more solemn and serious processes of actual initiation. Initiation was
administered only to those who were duly qualified, and the precise nature was of a
secret and closely guarded character. An echo of this progress by regular stages is
found in our present day ritual, in the information given to the candidate during the
Ceremony of Initiation, stipulating that "their are several degrees in Freemasonry with
peculiar secrets restricted to each" and the accompanying reminder that these are "not
conferred upon candidates indiscriminately, but only according to merit and ability". The
education of aspirants for Initiation was directed solely to the cultivation of the "four
cardinal virtues", and this at once brings to mind the reference in our own Lectures
wherein it is affirmed that "tradition informs us" that they "were constantly
practised by the majority of our ancient Brethren". A further qualification prerequisite
to a participation in the higher order of life was the study of the "seven liberal arts and
sciences". The construction put upon these virtues and sciences was, however, a much
more advanced one than the modern mind considers adequate; and it is interesting to
note that although we have not departed from the essential curriculum in theory in the
Craft today, in the matter of practice there is a wide difference. For instance, with our
Ancient Brethren the virtue of TEMPERANCE involved the complete control of the
passional nature; FORTITUDE, implied a courage which is undismayed by adversity,
and which permits of no deflection from the goal in view; PRUDENCE, comprehended
that deep insight leading to forward-seeing and producing the prophetic faculty of
seer-ship; JUSTICE, demanded unswerving righteousness of thought, word and deed.
The "arts and sciences" were also of a positive nature, and they were termed "liberal"
because the educational curriculum was expressly designed to "liberate" the soul of the
aspirant from the illusions incident to the natural state. Thus GRAMMAR, LOGIC and
RHETORIC were treated as disciplines of the moral nature, by means of which irrational
tendencies were eradicated and candidates trained to become living witnesses of the
universal Logos and effectively speaking with the "tongue of good report". GEOMETRY
and ARITHMETIC were sciences of transcendental space and numeration, the complete
comprehension of which provided the key to both the Universe and man himself, for
each expression of life was shown to have its number, rate of vibration or wave length,
its form and particular place in the Grand Plan of T.G.A.O.T.U. The science of
ASTRONOMY not only included the observation of the heavenly bodies, but was
primarily directed to the study of metaphysics and the correct understanding of the
distribution of the forces in, and determining the destiny of, individuals, nations and the
race. Finally, MUSIC, was not confined to the study of vocal or instrumental works, but
was concerned with the adjustment of the personal life into harmony with the Centre of
All Life, God, by the living practice of philosophy.

The Eleusinian Mysteries, then, involved much more than a merely notional philosophy;
they required also a philosophic method of living, and this method was divided into
two main parts, which were known as the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries. In the
Lesser Mysteries the elementary instruction was imparted, but the object of these was
to enable candidates to proceed with the task of purifying and adapting their lives
to the truths which were disclosed to them. The Greater Mysteries related to
developments of consciousness within the soul itself, and were connected with the new
and intensified life which was the direct result of fidelity to the prescribed disciplines.
To draw a faint analogy, the Lesser Mysteries stood in the same relationship to the
Greater as our present Craft degrees do to the Holy Royal Arch. Candidates who
became proficient and properly prepared in accordance with the curriculum of the
Lesser mysteries were eventually admitted to initiation in the Greater, while those who
failed to qualify were not permitted to proceed. The decree restraining unqualified
candidates from advancement to the Greater Mysteries was not arbitrary, but was
absolutely necessary in the interests of candidates themselves because inward purity
of heart and mind, coupled with the possession of the four cardinal virtues,
was essential to the ordeals of actual initiation, which otherwise rendered the aspirant
liable to insanity and obsessions. It was for this reason that the number of qualified
candidates amounted to only a small percentage of those who entered the Mysteries,
and this law remains valid in our day for we find the same truth restated in the V. of the
S.L., which is the text book of our modern system, in the familiar words, "Many are
called, but few are chosen".

One qualification above all was demanded from those who applied to enter the
Mysteries, - humility, and it is for admission into important to note that the candidate
for admission into Freemasonry is still required to come "humbly soliciting". The reason
for this was, and still is today, that the wisdom into which the Mysteries and initiation
admit a man is foolishness to the worldly minded. To attain it a candidate must
therefore be prepared for a complete and voluntary renunciation of worldly wisdom and
this may involve his finding negated everything he has previously held to be true, and
which, furthermore, those among whom he ordinarily mingles will continue to believe,
and insist, to be true. Speaking of this manner of approach to the comprehension of
things spiritual, St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, declares, "Let no man deceive
himself, if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool,
that he may be wise" (1st. Corinthians; Chapter 3, verse 18). The candidate for the
Christian Mysteries was instructed that he was to be content to "become a fool for the
kingdom of heaven's sake", and was to be ready to suffer adversity and ridicule, should
the necessity arise. This was one of the prime reasons for secrecy and one - though not
the only one - of the origins of the Masonic injunction as to secrecy. In the public
processions of the Lesser Mysteries of Eleusis, the sacramental vessels and elements
were carried upon the back of an ass, to signify that for the reception of divine
knowledge "humility is an essential virtue", while in the V. of the S.L., the same thing is
symbolised by the Palm-Sunday ride into Jerusalem of popular conception, of which we
read, "thy King cometh unto thee, just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an
ass". Apuleius, in the "Golden Ass", provides the explanation when he writes, "There is
no creature so able to receive divinity as an ass; into which if ye be not turned, ye shall
in no wise be able to carry the divine mysteries".

In addition to the practical instruction included in the curriculum of the Mysteries,
another and greatly educative means employed was the expression by means of myths
of truths of the Divine world and the entire spiritual history of man. The Greek
mythologists were adepts at expressing cosmic and philosophic truths in the guise of
fables which conveyed theosophic teaching to the discerning and veiled it from the
profane. Myth-making was a science, and not, as many allege, an indulgence in
irresponsible fiction, and by their presentation in dramatic form candidates were
instructed in the fundamental verities of life. One of the best known of the Greek myths
is that of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, which was performed annually with
great ceremony at the Eleusinia. It told how the maiden Persephone strayed away from
Arcadia (heaven) and from her mother Demeter, to pluck flowers in the fields of Enna,
and how the soil there opened and caused her to fall into the lower dark world of Hades
ruled over by Pluto. The despair of the mother at the loss of her daughter reached Zeus,
the chief of the Gods, with the result that he ordained that providing that the girl had not
eaten of the fruit of Hades, she should forthwith be restored to her mother for ever, but
that if she had so eaten she must abide a third of each year with Pluto and return to
Demeter for the other two thirds. Enquiry proved that unfortunately Persephone had
eaten a pomegranate in the lower world, so that her restoration to her mother could not
be permanent, but only periodic. This myth is the story of the human soul and is of
precisely the same nature as the Mosaic myth of Adam and Eve and the apple, and, as
the parable of the Prodigal Son, neither of which have any physical reference.
Persephone denotes the human soul, generated out of that primordial incorruptible
mother-earth which the Greeks personified as Demeter, in the same way as the Mosaic
narrative speaks of God forming man out of the dust of the ground. Her straying from
her Arcadian home and heavenly mother in quest of flowers (flowers symbolising fresh
experiences) in the fields of Enna, corresponds with the same promptings of desire that
led to Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden and his fall thence to this outer
world, The word "Enna" signifies "darkness and bitterness", which is the result of unruly
desires, and a fuller explanation of the meaning will be found in the V. of the
S.L., where it is translated from the original as GEHENNA. Pluto, is designated the "god
of riches", meaning the riches of wisdom and experience, and it is into his kingdom that
Persephone fell. The "eating of fruit" alludes to the inferior pleasures of this lower plane
of existence, which, as the Pomegranate symbolises, is many-seeded with illusions and
vanities. Until these false tendencies are eradicated until the desires of the heart are
utterly weaned from external delights, there can be no permanent restoration of the soul
to its source, but merely the periodic respite and refreshment that physical death brings
when it withdraws the soul from Pluto's realm to the heaven-world, to be followed again
and again by periodic descents into material limitations and re-ascents into discarnate,
conditions, until it becomes fully perfected.

Freemasonry, as already indicated, being the lineal descendant of the ancient Wisdom-
teaching, follows the traditional method of imparting instruction by means of myths, and
its canon of teaching in the Craft degrees contains two such myths. The first is that of
the building of King Solomon's Temple, and the second, the narrative of the death and
burial of the Master Builder related in the traditional history. To the literal-minded, the
building of the Temple at Jerusalem appears to be the history of an actual stone and
mortar structure which was erected by three Asiatic notables, one of whom conceived
the idea, another supplying the building material, whilst the third was the practical
architect and chief of works. The two former are said to have been kings of adjacent
small nations; the third was not a royalty, but was apparently a person of no social
dignity and a widow's son. For the good of Freemasonry in general, let it be clearly
stated in the words of St. Paul, "Which things are an allegory", for the Masonic Temple
of Solomon is not one of common brick and stone. It is fashioned out of that "unhewn
stone" or incorruptible raw material out of which the Creator formed the human
organism. The Jerusalem in which this temple was built was obviously not the
geographical one in Palestine, but refers to the eternal "city of peace" in the heavens,
or, in other words, "that House not made with hands"; not, as St, Paul also affirms, "the
Jerusalem which now is", but "the Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us
all" (Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 4, verse 26), and thus corresponding to the Greek

Demeter. Neither were the builders of the Temple three human personages resident in
the Levant, for their names are the personification of the Divine energy considered in its
three constituent principles, which are otherwise spoken of in our Lectures as Wisdom,
Strength and Beauty. These three principles of "Pillars" as they are also termed in the
Instruction Lectures, are personified by S. K. of I., H.K. of T., and H.A., and an
explanation of their concealed significance is necessary in order to properly interpret the
myth. Solomon personifies the primordial Life-Essence or substantialised Divine Wisdom
which is the basis of our being; this is described as "King of Israel" because Israel
means "co-operating or ruling with God". To conjoin this transcendental Life-Essence
to a vehicle which should give it fixity and form required the assistance of another
"kingly" principle, personified as "King of Tyre", who therefore may correctly be said to
have supplied the "building material". In Hebrew the name "Tyre" signifies "rock" and
refers to strength or durability, and the conjunction of Solomon and Hiram of Tyre
(Life-Essence and Mould or Matrix) therefore represents the groundwork of the soul,
which is made functionally effective by the addition of the third principle described as
the "widow's son", and personifying the active intellectual principle or Logos. Thus H.
A. is the Christ-principle immanent in every soul; crucified, dead and buried in all who
are not alive to its presence, but nevertheless resident in all as a saving force. Again to
quote St. Paul, "Christ in you, the hope of glory". The description of this principle as "the
widow's son reflects in our modern system a beautiful piece of the Gnostic symbolism,
and refers to the widowed nature of the Divine Motherhood as the result of the defection
from wisdom of her frail children. The true Gnosis informs us that only those children
who are striving while in the flesh to rejoin their Mother are worthy to be known as "sons
of the widow", and as our ceremonial rite clearly indicates, it is from these labouring at
the task that the traditional petition is addressed to all those who have rejoined her,
"Come to my help ye sons of the Widow, for I also am the Widow's son".

The Temple of the human soul, primordially constituted of the three principles
exemplified in due balance and proportion and divinely pronounced to be "very good",
has owing to the certain untoward incident, which is the subject of our central Masonic
legend, been thrown down from its primitive eminence. Its fall has been effected by the
disproportioned, unbalanced, and therefore, disorderly abuse of its inherent powers.
Thus man is now, figuratively speaking, a ruined temple, over which it is written,
"Ichabod", - "the glory has departed" for severed from conscious intercourse with his
Vital and Immortal Principle, man is a prisoner in captivity to himself and his temporal
nature; it remains for him to retrace his steps and rebuild his temple. Hence it is that
the Masonic candidate is counselled to continue no longer in bondage to his self-made
illusions and the attractions of "worldly possessions", but to become a free man and a
mason, engaged in the work of shaping himself into a "living stone" for the cosmic
temple of a regenerate Humanity. In the Craft to be installed in the "Chair of King
Solomon" means, therefore, in the true sense; the re-attainment of "that which
is lost", and this is rightly represented to be the aim of every Freemason. In fact if we
do not re-attain the Divine Wisdom during our sojourn in this world, we miss the
opportunity, since it is universally attested to that the after-death state is not one of
labour, but of refreshment and rest, where no real progress is possible. Initiation,
therefore, was instituted to impart the science of re-attainment, but we are reminded as
the Ancient Mysteries taught, that the soul that never even begins this work in this
world, will not be able to begin it in the hereafter, and will remain suspended in
the more tenuous planes of this planet, until such time as it is again indrawn into the
vortex of generation by the ever-turning wheel of life. It is for this reason that the
Masonic candidate is admonished, "be careful to perform your allotted task while it is
yet day", the implication being that stated in the V, of the S.L., "Now is the time for
salvation, for the night cometh when no man can work". The Masonic conception of the
"Grand Lodge Above" is also in accord with the teaching contained in the V. of the
S.L.concerning the post-mortem levels of existence, for we read that, "In my Father's
house are many mansions", or, literally, resting places, and that they and their
occupants are graduated in Hierarchical order according to their degree of spiritual
eminence. "As Above, so Below", affirms the ancient axiom, but unfortunately the
modern world has lost all sense of the principle of hierarchy, which, since it obtains in
the higher world, ought to be reflected in this. Freemasonry, however, preserves the
witness to this graduation in the symbolic distribution of its membership, for above the
Craft Lodge there presides the Provincial Grand Lodge, while beyond that rules the
Grand Lodge of the nation. Then theoretically higher than any of these is the Royal Arch
Chapters with the Provincial and Grand Chapters at the summit. Also in the symbolic
clothing worn by the members of each of these ranks, the observant student will
perceive the intention to give appropriate expression to the truth which is thereby
signified. Thus the pure white Masonic Apron is fringed with a pale blue in the case of
junior brethren, a pale shade of that blue which, even in physical nature, is the colour
of the heavens. In the case of the seniors of the Provincial and Grand Lodges the pale
blue of the craft is intensified to the deepest degree, and the clothing is adorned with
gold lace, thus emblematising that which is referred to by the Psalmist, "The King's
daughter (the soul) is all glorious within, her clothing is wrought of gold". Proceeding
to the Royal Arch it will be observed that the devotional blue of the craft is now indented
with red, the colour of fire denoting spiritual arbour, and the blend of these results in
purple which in both earth and heaven is always the prerogative of royalty. Thus it is,
that by their clothing in the various grades, the members of the Masonic Order are
emblematic on earth of the angels, archangels and all the company of Heaven.

And now, brethren, may I conclude this Paper, and close, as every Lodge is closed, in
peace and concord with all my Brethren, and with the ancient prayer that the Order may
be preserved of God, and its members cemented with every virtue. If, in what I have
written, Freemasonry has been given a conception spiritualised beyond the measure of
its common understanding, I have but followed the example of our Ancient Brethren,
who lifting their eyes to the hills whence cometh strength, wrought their work upon the
highest eminences of the mind and discerned the Mysteries, not with eyes of flesh, but
with the vision and understanding of the spirit. It may be that few are prepared to
ascend to those high hills today, in this more than usually troubled and dark age, but
nevertheless some are ready and eager to do so despite the great trials and tribulations
which are incident to world in upheaval, and for them I have especially compiled this
record. At the moment, the World-spirit is dominant in all institutions. Wisdom is little
apparent; for want of vision the people perish; and the quest for light has to be pursued
under conditions of peculiar adversity. But, we are reminded that there is a mystery of
darkness no less than one of Light; and, in the moulding hands of the Great Architect
of the House of Life, the darkness and the light are both alike and serve as twin pillars,
that, finally, will establish the House in strength. Those, then, who are not yet prepared
to mount the higher path of understanding the things of the Craft, are nevertheless
incorporated in our great Fraternity, for as we are reminded by the words of a
familiar Masonic Ode, we are charged and required to extend:-

"A welcome sweet to all we meet
Within our sacred walls;
May God still grant that those we greet
May haste when Duty calls."

Finally, it remains with the craft itself, whether it shall enter upon its own heritage as a
lineal successor of the Ancient Mysteries and Wisdom-teaching, or whether by failing
to do so, it will undergo the inevitable fate of everything that is but form, from which the
spirit has departed.

SO MOTE IT BE.