CHAPTER XV—REVIVAL OF OCCULTISM IN ENGLISH FREE-

MASONRY.
R. F. Gould has a valuable chapter, the XIIIth, on “The “Kabala—Mysticism—The Rosicrucians—Elias Ashmole.” Speaking of the XVIth and XVJI[th centuries, he says :
“During these two centuries of darkness, we also have “abundant proof that the world, at least the world of Western “Europe, the world which was agitated by the Reformation, “was full of all kinds of strange and distorted fancies, the “work of disordered imagination, to an extent probably never “known before, not even in the age which witnessed the vag- “aries of the Gnostics and the later Alexandrian school. “These strange fancies, at least some of them, had been “floating about with more or less distinctness from the earli- “est period to which human records extend, and, as something “analogous, if not akin, appears in speculative Masonry, it “has been supposed, either that there existed a union between “the sects and societies, who practised, often in secret, those “tenets, and the decaying Masonic bodies ; or that some men “being learned in astronomy, alchemy and Kabalistic lore, “generally, were also Freemasons and took advantage of this “circumstance to indoctrinate their colleagues with their own “fantastic belief, and so under the cloak and by means of the
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“organization of Freemasonry, to preserve tenets which might “otherwise have fallen into complete oblivion. Especially “has this been supposed to have been the case with the cele- “brated antiquary,-Elias Ashmole.”
We do not intend in the present publication to follow the history of occult sciences and arts, to review all the de- cays and revivals of occult societies and fraternities, such as those of the Rosicrucians, Free Livers, etc. For our present purpose it is enough to prove that E. Ashmole, of the XVIIth century, has had imitators in the XIXth, and that nowa days, there is in the English lodges a revival of occult teach- ings and doings similar to that described for the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. One of our'witnesses is the very cham- pion of Engish Masonic puritanism as against the Devil Worship in France. He remarks, p. 3:
“The revival of Mystical philosophy, and, moreover, of “transcendental experiment, which is prosecuted in secret to a “far greater cxtent than the public can possibly be aware, “has, however, set many old oracles chattering, and they are “more voluble at the present moment thar the great Dodo- “nian grove. As might be expected they whisper occasion- “ally of deeds done in darkness, which look weird when “exposed to the day.”
Speaking of the Catholic Church and the connection between Mysticism and Masonry, he says, p. 313:
“She has intuitively divined this connection which by “Masons themselves, for the most part, is not dreamed at “this day, and when suggested is generally somewhat cast “aside. It would be out of place...... to attempt enforcing “upon Masons a special view of their institution, but it is “desirable at the same time, to be just toward the Catholic “Church and to affirm that we, as mystics, are on this point “substantially in agreement with her. The connection in “question was for a time visible, and remains in historical “remembrance: from the beginning of its public appearance “till the close of the eighteenth century, the history of “Masonry is part of transcendental history. That connection “has now ceased to manifest, but there is another which is “integral and permaiient and is a matter of common prin- “ciples and common objects. Let it be remembered, however, “that connection is not identity...... but that there is a “community of purpose, of symbolism, of history, and in- “directly of origin between the two systcms”...... Fs 3163
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“Both systems are veiled in allegory and iliustrated by sym- “bolisms...... There is naturally a minor body of conven- “tional typology which is to!erably exclusive to the craft, but “the grand and universal emblems characteristic of symbolical “Mas onry as distinct from the operative art—these are our “own emblems. The All-Seeing Eye, the Burning Star, the “Rough and Perfect Ashlar, the Point Within a Circle, the “Pentalpha, the Seal of Solomon, the Cubic Stones—all these “belong to the most lofty and arcane order of occu't symbol- “BM acces The Masonic reverence for certain numbers which are apparently arbitrary in themselves is in reality connected “with a most recondite and curious system of mystic method- “ical philosophy, while in the high titles of Masonic dignity “there is frequently a direct reference to Mysticism,” viz.: To Kabalism, Hermeticisin, Magic, etc.
A. E. Waite had told us, pp. 8, 9 and 10:
“Some few years since...... it became evident that a “marked change had passed over certain aspects of thought “in ‘the most enlightened city of the world’ and that among “the JEUNESSE DOREE in particular, there was a strong re- “vyulsion against paramount material philosophy ; an epoch “of transcendental and mystic feeling was in fact beginning. “Old associations having transcendental objects, were in “course of revival and were coming into renewed prominence.”
We have already seen in another chapter how, not a few years since, but as early as 1875, the Rosicrucian society was resurrected by Little, and acknowledged by high English Masons as a Masonic or quasi-Masonic society and a legiti- mate degree. We will show that, thanks to Albert Pike and his beloving fellow students, such as Hughan, Gould, the Rev. Woodford, the 80 Luminaries, there has been in the k:nglish lodges a revival of Magic, whether Transcendental or Optimate, whether White or Black. Moreover we have proved that the Kabala had a share in the birth of the modern English and Cosmopolite Freemasonry ; not many years since its importance and necessity have been refreshed to the attention of the esoteric Masons ; it was done in about the same time as other kinds of Occultism were resurrected or revived. The zeal of Bro. J. Yarker, a 33rd degree, and Grand Master of the only legitimate body of Memphis and Misraim in England, Scot!and and Ireland, is a guarantee of the revival of Martinism in the English Freemasonry. Thus we are justified in applying to the English countries what the
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mystico-magician Waite tries to limit to France, when (p. 10) he continues his remarks, saying :
“Martinists, Gnostics, Kabalists and a score of Orders “and Fraternities of which we vaguely hear about the period “of the French Revolution, began to manifest great activity ; “periodicals of mystical tendency—not spiritualistic, not “theosophical, but Hermetic, Kabalistic and Theurgic-—were “established and met with success ; books which had griev- “ously weighted the shelves of their publishers for something “like a quarter of a century were suddenly in demand and “students of distinction on this side of the channel were at- “tracted towards the new center. The interest was intellig- “ible to the professed Mystics: the doctrine of Transcendent- “alism has never had but one adversary, which is the density “of the intellectual subject and wherever the subject clarifies” —we would say, Gnostically—“there is idealism in philosophy “or mysticism in religion”—We would say, mystico-magic or Luciferianism.—I.. F.—“Moreover, on the part of Mystics, “especially here in England, the way of that revival had been “prcpared carefully, and there could be no astonishment that “it came, and none, too, that it was accompanied, as it is “almost invariably accompanied, by much that does not be- “long to it in the way of Transcendental phenomena When, “therefore, the rumors of Black Magic, Diabolism and the “abuses of Occult forces began to circulate, there was very “little difficulty in attributing some foundation to the report.”
We read, p. 322:
“When the history of Freemasonry becomes possible by “the possession of materials, its chief philosophical interest “centres in one country of Europe ; there is no doubt that it “exercised an immense influence upon France during the “century of quakings and quickenings which gave birth to “the great revolution, transformed civilization in the West “and inaugurated the modern era. Without being a political “society, it was an instrument eminently adaptable to the “subsurface determination of political movements. Ata later “date it may have contributed to the formation of Germany “as it did certainly to the creation of Italy, but the point and “centre of Masonic history is France in the eighteenth cen- “tury. To that century also is mainly confined the historical] “connection between Masonry and Mystic Science, for the “revival of Mysticism which originated in Germany at the “close of the eighteenth century, and thence passed over to
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“England, found its final field in France at the period in “question.”
From thence at a later period it returned to England through the exertion and zealous propagandism of Waite and his friends and through the work of A. Pike, Woodford and their confreres and comperes, both in the British Empire and in the United States ; in 1891 it became indisputable by the joint publication of the 80 Luminaries.