CHAPTER III.

THE GENIUS OF FREEMASONRY.
The traditions, glyphs and ritual of Freemasonry cluster around the building of the temple; the le- gend of the widow's son, Hiram-abirT, who lost his life in the defense of his integrity, and the search for the Lost Word of the Master. As the candidate progresses, degree after degree, he is furnished with the working-tools suited to his degree of knowledge and proficiency, given instruction as to their use; the lesser and greater lights are revealed and ex- plained; and through all, each outer form, or ma- terial thing, is shown to be a symbol of a deeper mystery, a concealed potency.
This is, in brief, the language and the philosophy of symbolism, or the exoteric and the esoteric garb of Truth. The method itself, outside of all details or applications, has a deeper scientific significance than most persons are aware of. This method of instruction is not fanciful or arbitrary, but conforms to the process ,of Eternal Nature in building an
The Genius of Freemasonry. 81
atom or a world; a daisy or a man. Cosmos has evolved from Chaos, and yet Chaos remains the Eternal Potency; what Plato called the "World of Divine Ideas" This will be more fully explained in a subsequent chapter. For the present, it may suffice to say, that from primitive space, primordial ether, or what modern science might call the Matrix or origin of the "nebulous mass," the earth and all that it contains has evolved. The essential form, the idea of all things; the potency or force; and the matter as we now discern it, must have existed in primordial space. Therefore, these two always ex- ist, viz., the inner potency, and the outer act; the concealed Idea, and the outer form ; the inner mean- ing, and the outer event. Each is in its turn a sym- bol of the other. Hence the saying on the Smarag- dine Tablet, as above so below. All outward things are therefore symbols, or embodiments of pre-exist- ing Ideas, and out of this subjective ideal realm all visible things have emanated. This doctrine of emanations is the key to the philosophy of Plato, and that of the Gnostic sects from which the early Christians derived their mysteries. This fact is mentioned here in order to show the deep founda- tions of the glyphs of Masonry.
In the Ritual of Masonry, King Solomon's temple
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is taken as a symbol. The building and the restora- tion of the temple at Jerusalem are dramatically represented in the work of the Lodge, and in the ceremony of initiation, by a play upon words and parity of events, and applied to the candidate, with admonition, warning or encouragement, as the drama unfolds. The measurements and proportion of the temple are dwelt upon in order to bring in the science of numbers, form, and proportion, so manifest in architecture, and to connect them with the "spiritual temple" with which they all have the same, though less obvious, relations. The symbolism is fitted to ideal relations, rather than to actual ex- istences or historical events. Sol-om-on represents the name of Deity in three languages, and the bibli- cal history is doubtless an allegory or myth of the Sun-god. There is no reliable history of the con- struction of any such temple at Jerusalem, and re- cent explorations and measurements have greatly altered the dimensions as heretofore given. Hiram Abiff is dramatically represented to have lost his life when the temple was near completion, and yet it is recorded that after the completion of the tem- ple he labored for years to construct and ornament a palace for the King. Add to these facts the state- ment that the temple was constructed without the
The Genius of Freemasonry. 83
sound of hammer or any tool of iron, and it is thus likened more nearly to that other "Spiritual Temple, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens/' and the literal and historical features disappear, and the symbolism stands out in bold relief. Masonic Lodges are dedicated to the Sts. John ; one of whom, the Evangelist, opens his Gnostic Gospel with the Greek philosophy of the Logos, the principle of emanation already referred to; and the other, the Seer of Patmos, writes a book symbolical of ancient initiations, which many a non-initiate has tried in vain to interpret. It may thus be seen that there is a deep significance in the dedication of Lodges to the Sts. John. Take, for example, Revelations xxi, 16: "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length, and the breadth and the height of it are equal" (a perfect cube). "And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, an angel." The language is evidently a veil, designed to con- ceal the real meaning from the uninitiated. As the measure of man ; that is, a perfect man, or "angel," we have the cube as a symbol of perfect proportion. Hence a Square Man. The temple of Sol-om-on;
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the Cubical City — which unfolded becomes a cross, and hence the "measure of a man" — all these refer to the work of regeneration, or initiation.* The re- building of the temple after the plan drawn upon the Trestle-board, by which it shall be like that spiritual temple, not made with hands, plainly refers to ini- tiation from which results perfect proportion and perfect harmony. In a later section of this work this mathematical and geometrical basis of virtue and wisdom, or knowledge and power, will be fur- ther explained. It is unknown to the Craft of Ma- sonry except in its bare outline and cruder symbol- ism: it is nowhere hinted that there is an inherent relation and full equivalent between absolute mathe- matics and spiritual power.
"A very limited knowledge of the history of primitive worship and mysteries is necessary to en- able any person to recognize in the master mason, Hiram, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks, the Atys of the Phrygians, of which these people celebrated the passion, death and resurrection, as Christians celebrate today that of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, this is the eternal and unvarying type of all the
*See Plate XIII.
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religions which have succeeded each other upon the earth. In an astronomical connection, Hiram is the representative of the Sun, the symbol of his appar- ent progress, which, appearing at the south gate, so to speak, is smote downward and more downward as he advances toward the west, which passing, he is immediately vanquished and put to death by darkness, represented, in following the same alle- gory, by the spirit of evil; but, returning, he rises again, conqueror and resurrected."*
After a long and very learned discussion of the phonetic and philological meaning, use, and deriva- tion of certain god-names, Albert Pike says, page 79:
"Khurum, therefore improperly called Hiram, is Khur-om, the same as Her-ra, Hermes, and Her-acles, the personification of Light and the Sun, the Mediator, Redeemer and Savior."
And, again, page 81, he says:
"It is merely absurd to add the word, 'Abif' or 'Abiff/ as part of the name of the artificer. Abin (which we read Abif) means 'of my father's' . . . 'formerly one of my father's servants' or 'slaves.' "
*Reybold's "History of Freemasonry." Note by Translator, p. 392.
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As to the Fellowcrafts concerned in the con- spiracy, they are shown to have more than one mean- ing; astronomically this relates to the signs of the Zodiac, the "three wicked ones" representing the winter solstice or death of the year, and consequent subjugation of the Sun-god ! Other meanings will be shown further on. "Is it an accidental coinci- dence," asks Bro. Pike, in Morals and Dogma, p. 82, "that in the name of each murderer are the two names of the Good and Evil Deities of the Hebrews ; for Yu-bel is but Yehu-bal or Yeho-bal; and that the three final syllables of the names, a, o, m, make A. \U. \M. *., the sacred word of the Hindoos, meaning the Triune-God, Life-giving, Life-preserv- ing, Life-destroying" (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva), "rep- resented by the mystic character Y."
And, again, on page 620, Bro. Pike says:
"This word could not be pronounced except by the letters; for its pronunciation as one word was said to make Earth tremble and even the angels of Heaven (elementals) to quake with fear."
The aim of the writer at this time is to show the general connection of Masonic glyphs with those of ancient times. The real meaning will appear fur- ther on.
As already declared, modern Masonry being but
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an imitation of ancient genuine Mysteries, the writer has no design of reading into it a meaning which can not be fully verified. For the greater part, modern Masons are dealing with symbols, the Key for the real interpretation of which they never possessed, or even suspected that it existed. It re- mains for the future to determine whether any con- siderable number of our Masonic Brethren really desire to possess in fuller measure the Living Truth which the dead-letter text conceals. That Living Truth exists, and is as accessible to every Mason as is the dead-letter or the dumb-show under which it masquerades in every Lodge.
As to the sprig of Acacia, Bro. Pike says: "The genuine Acacia also is the thorny tamarisk, the same tree which grew up around the body of Osiris. It is a sacred tree among the Arabs, who made of it the Idol Al-Uzza, which Mohammed destroye4 It is abundant as a bush in the desert of Thur, atf of it the 'crown of thorns' was composed, which was set on the forehead of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a fit type of immortality on account of its tenacity of life ; for it has been known, when planted as a door- post, to take root and shoot out budding boughs above the threshold."
Here, again, we see a symbol ages old, revived
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and adopted in many forms, and further, that Im- mortality was not "brought to light" for the first and only time by the "Man of Sorrows" of the Christians ; yet in every case is the symbol none the less true. Whether any of these sun-gods or Re- deemers were historical characters or not, the sym- bolism teaches everywhere the same eternal truths: the Resurrection and the Life; Redemption and Immortality.
After being obligated and brought to light, the candidate in the third degree is bantered with the statement that undoubtedly he now imagines himself a Master Mason. He is informed not only that such is not the case, but that there is no certainty that he ever will become such. He subsequently starts on his Journey for the discovery of the Lost Word. The method by which he undertakes to obtain it, and the names of the three Fellowcrafts already re- ferred to as brothers, have a very deep significance. After many trials, he receives a substitute, which he is to conceal with great fidelity "till future genera- tions shall discover the lost word."
The method by which he receives and is ever to transmit or use even the substitute, is made exact and definite, and guarded by solemn obligations. The meaning of both the great secrecy and the use
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of the word are left entirely to conjecture, beyond the statement that it is a sacred name, and must never be profaned, or taken in vain, or carelessly used ; and I venture the opinion, that not one Mason among ten thousand has ever been able to discover why.
The force of the obligation is therefore in the oath and not in the reason. As a matter of fact, the real reason is scientific to the last analysis; scientific to a degree beyond the penetration, up to the present time, of the "radiant matter" or the Roentgen Ray of Modern Science. The Word concerns the sci- ence of rhythmic vibrations, and is the key to the equilibrium of all forces and to the harmony of Eternal Nature.
This tradition of the Ineffable Name is brought into Masonry from the Hebrew Kabalah, and how it became lost is partly historical, at least. The an- cient Hebrew Priests evidently undertook to fit to the names of their tribal-deities the symbolism and traditions of the far East. If the Master's Word were really a word at all, the Deity of the Hebrews might perhaps represent it as well as any other. It is a question of phonetics, however, rather than mere orthography. Beneath the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch lies concealed the science of the
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Kabalah. The Anathemas threatened for him who should alter, by a single letter or "Yod," the outer text, had therefore a deeper meaning. The priests of many nations of antiquity were initiates in the Mysteries, and as such they were Monotheists, while the ignorant masses were idolaters. The monothe- ism of the Jews was of a robust character, and their priests and prophets had a hard time to preserve their people from the seductive polytheism and abominations of surrounding nations. The Ineffable Name was not only concealed, but "terrible as an army with banners." Jehovah was jealous, revenge- ful, vindictive toward the evil-doer, and tolerated no rival in the broad expanse of Cosmos. In no reli- gion of antiquity is the anthropomorphic image of Deity so strongly denned, and the Creator of man and worlds made so exceedingly human.
The Kabalah, on the contrary, embodying con- siderable of the true and ancient Secret Doctrine, held a different idea of Divinity. While carrying the tradition, therefore, of the lost word as the In- effable Name of Deity, the symbolism was taken as literal fact, and the people who were commanded to "make no graven image" ended by making a gigantic idol, half Moloch and half Man. Amid such contradictions, the symbolism adopted from the
The Genius of Freemasonry. 91
purer and gentler Aryans was ill at ease and far from home. Rev. Dr. Garrison claims in a "Con- tribution to the History of the Lost Word," ap- pended to Foot's Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, that the four-syllabled name, Jehovah, was held by the Hebrews as the Ineffable, and that Adonai was used as a substitute. The Highpriest once every year, at the time of the atonement, en- tered alone into the Holy of Holies and there re- peated the name. The name ?:~s thus withdrawn from and finally lost by the common people. This is ingenious and too literal to cover the case. The old query, "What is in a name?" is, after all, not so easy of answer; or the answer might be, "every thing or nothing," according as you understand it or look at it. Before the introduction of the Masoretic points or indices of vowel sounds, the consonants were read by metrically intoning the text. The principle of the Mantram was therefore known to the Highpriest at least, and, therefore, the Word, the Name, that Known in all its plenitude and used with power, "caused the whole world to shake," may have been used or invoked in the Holy of Holies by the Kabalistic Hierophant. Some who read this may be even yet so ignorant of the potency of sound as to smile at the credulity and gullibility
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that indites it; and yet so superstitious over the let- ters of a name as to believe them more sacred in one form than another ! Notwithstanding, it is the letter that killeth, and the Spirit (the breath) that maketh alive. The consonants composing the Hebrew al- phabet are about as sacred as so many wooden blocks. If one knows how to arrange the blocks, and endow them with life, so that they may "bud and blossom like Aaron's rod," that of course is a very different mt&ier.
"There are dangers inseparable from Symbolism, which afford an impressive lesson in regard to sim- ilar risks attendant on the use of language. The imagination called in to assist the reason usurps its place, or leaves its ally helplessly entangled in its web, Names which stand for things are confounded with them; the means are mistaken for the ends; the instrument of interpretation for the object; and thus symbols come to usurp an independent charac- ter as truths and persons. Though perhaps a neces- sary path, they are a dangerous one, by which to ap- proach the Deity; in which many, says Plutarch, mistaking the sign for the thing signified, fell into a ridiculous superstition, while others, in avoiding one extreme, plunge into the no less hideous gulf of irreligion and impiety." . . .
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"It is through the mysteries, Cicero says, that we have learned the first principles of life, wherefore the term 'initiation' is used with good reason." . . .
"To employ nature's universal symbolism instead of the technicalities of language, rewards the humblest inquirer and discloses its secrets to every one in proportion to his preparatory training to comprehend them. If their philosophical meaning was above the comprehension of some, their moral and political meanings are within the reach of all." . . .
"These mystic shows and performances were not the reading of a lecture, but the opening of a problem. Requiring research, they were calculated to arouse the dormant intellect. They implied no hostility to Philosophy, because Philosophy is the great expounder of symbolism."*
There is a Grand Science known as Magic, and every real Master is a Magician. Feared by the ignorant, and ridiculed by the "learned" the Divine Science and its Masters have, nevertheless, existed in all ages, and exist today. Masonry in its deeper meaning and recondite mysteries constitutes and possesses this Science, and all genuine Initiation
*Morals and Dogma, p. 64.
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consists in an orderly unfolding of the natural powers of the neophite, so that he shall become the very thing he desires to possess. In seeking Magic, he finally becomes the Majus. All genuine Initiation is, like evolution and regeneration, from within. Devoid of this inner meaning and power, all rituals are but foolish jargon, and all ceremonies an empty farce. Even such the rituals of Masonry have be- come to many. That the Christ-life and the power that made Jesus to be called Christos, Master, whereby he healed the sick, cast out devils, and foretold future events, is the same- Life revealed and attained by initiation in the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, is perfectly plain. The disrepute into which the Divine Science has fallen has arisen from its abuse and degredation.
In the middle ages, and in fact, in every age there have been dabblers in magic; sorcerers and necromancers, who, possessing some of the secrets, and imbued with none of its beneficence, have used their knowledge and power for purely personal and selfish ends. Hypnotism and Phe- nomenal Spiritualism are sufficient illustrations of the power to which I refer, and the abuse to which it may be put. Magic, per se, is always a Science, and up to a certain point it may be cultivated with-
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out regard to its use, or the well-being of man; although any abuse of it is fatal to the magician.
The popular idea is that education consists largely in the cultivation of the intellectual powers. An average standard of morals is always recommended by educators, and its outer form is illustrated by religious ceremonies. But intellectual cultivation alone, no matter to what extent it may be carried — and the further it goes in this one-sided way the worse for all concerned — is in no sense an evolution. Perfect intellectual development, without spiritual discernment and moral obligation, is the sign-manual of Satan. Intelligence, without goodness, lies athwart the Divine Plan in the evolution of Cosmos. Intellect and Altruism by no means necessarily go hand in hand. One may have a very clear intellect, have quick perceptions, and be a good reasoner, and yet be very wicked. On the other hand, one may be very dull intellectually, and yet be kind, brotherly and sympathetic to the last degree. A world made up of the former would be -a bad place to live in; if of the latter, a thousand times to be preferred. Magic contemplates that all-around development which, liberating the intellect from the dominion of the senses and illuminating the spiritual perceptions, places the individual on the lines of least resistance
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with the inflexible laws of nature, and he becomes nature's co-worker or hand-maid. To all such, Nature makes obeisance, and delegates her powers, and they become Masters. The real Master con- ceals his power and uses it only for the good of others. He works "without the hope of fee or reward."
Discerning that knowledge is power, designing and evil men desire to possess both knowledge and power for entirely selfish purposes. It may be read- ily discerned that the more knowledge and power a purely selfish man possesses, the more inimical to humanity he becomes. He can do less harm if kept in ignorance. This is especially the case in regard to those deeper sciences which deal with mind, and influence the thoughts and actions of others. Sup- pose one were able to hypnotize large numbers of persons at once, and compel them to do his bidding; and that his motives were not only selfish, but all results injurious to his agents. Such a person would be a Magician, and, as his motive would be purely selfish, a "Black Magician." Modern Science, purely materialistic in its aims and conclusions, has always, till very recently, ridiculed the idea em- bodied in Magic, and were it not for the fact that it has been compelled to recognize, under the name
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Hypnotism, since the time of Braid, the very force which it denied and condemned in the days of Mes- mer, it might be difficult to find a palpable and un- deniable illustration of what kind of power is in- volved in Magic.
But Hypnotism is not even the alphabet of the vocabulary known to the real Master or Magician. It is but an empirical dabbling in a power of gigan- tic proportions, the key to which makes of its pos- sessor either a Savior or a Destroyer of his fellow- men.
We have only to reflect on the use already made of Hypnotism for public exhibitions, for personal greed, by its "Professors" — God save the mark — to determine whether any larger output of Occult knowledge would be desirable or beneficial to man- kind at large.
The traditional-Lost Word of the Master is a key to all the science of Magic. The knowledge of the Master is not empirical. It does not consist of a few isolated formulae by which certain startling or unusual effects can be produced. The Magician's art is based on a science far more deep and exact than modern physical science has yet dreamed of, and back of this science lies a philosophy as bound- less as Cosmos, as inexhaustible as Time, and as
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beneficent as the "Father in Heaven." If the Masonic meaning of Master: Perfect and Sublime Master: Prince Adept: etc., is less than I have indi- cated, then it is a roaring farce, or a stupendous humbug. The conception of Masonry is true, but it has adopted or imitated the ritual and glyphs of a science, the key to which not one Mason in ten thousand possesses, and hence the tradition of the Lost Word has a literal, no less than a symbolical meaning. The "Substitute" is given to the ne- ophite — "till future generations shall find the True Word." The question now propounded to every "obligated," or so-called Master Mason, is — is the present 'the generation in which that which was lost shall be found? and each must answer for himself singly; just as he entered his lodge, first saw the light, and took his obligation; just as every real Master, or "White Adept," has done since the begin- ning of time. There exists in Masonic literature many learned essays on the history, orthography and philology of the Lost Word; but I am acquainted with no treatise that apprehends the nature of the real secret like that of Brother Albert Pike in his great work, and yet, if he knew the whole secret, he concealed it at last.
The more immediate source from which the le-
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gend is imported into Masonry is the Jewish Kaba- lah, derived doubtless from the Chaldean and Zoroasterian form of the Secret Doctrine; the prin- ciples and methods of which were unfolded by the late lamented Bro. J. Ralston Skinner, A. & A. S. R. 320. Bro. Skinner's greater works, however, aside from his Source of Measures, and a large number of pamphlets, exist only in Manuscript, and are of so abstruse a character as to be of little use except to profound scholars. Running all through the Talmud are found references to the Secret Wis- dom, while the Sohar, the Kabalah Denudata, and other Kabalistic works are all written with a veil designed to conceal the secret from the uninitiated, and to be meaningless without the key. Bro. Skin- ner's discoveries were the reward of genius, made as the result of stumbling on one of the keys that "unlock the Golden Gates of the Palace of the King." His discoveries lay the foundation for a systematic and scientific study of the Kabalistic form of the Secret Doctrine which lies concealed beneath the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch, and which no commentary has ever revealed or intended to reveal. Perhaps another generation of biblical Hebrew Scholars may discard their preconceptions, prejudices and superstitions of the mere verbiage of
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the text sufficiently to desire to discover the real meaning of the Pentateuch, as to the creation of Men and Worlds. Copies of Bro. Skinner's unpub- lished researches have been so placed by his special desire and act, that they may be preserved for such future investigators and not again be lost to the world.
But the Hebrew Kabalah is but one of many sources from which the Secret Science may be de- rived, and it is not the one which in its form of Sym- bolism and method of interpretation is best fitted to the present age. When the symbolism of the Ka- balah is read by the key furnished by Bro. Skinner, it requires to be again translated into modern ideas or forms of thought. The basis of it was the Chal- dean Book of Numbers, no genuine copy of which, if in existence, is accessible to modern students. Several spurious copies are known to exist, and it is possible that a genuine copy may be produced at the proper time. For be it remembered that Genuine Masters, "Prince Adept Masons," have always ex- isted, and no book or record worth preserving or necessary for the good of man is ever lost. In se- cret crypts, alike inaccessible to the vandal hand of man, and the corrosion of time and decay, these treasures are said to be preserved.
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All human progress runs in cycles. Modern ma- terialistic science has had its brief day, and Philos- ophy has already undermined its foundations. The new age will show a genuine revival of Philosophy.
The immortal principles enunciated by Plato, clothed in modern garb of thought, less involved and dialectical, will again command the attention of the thinking world. Every one is aware that the source of Plato's knowledge was the Mysteries; he was an Initiate, and on almost every page reveals the obligation he is Under not to betray to the com- mon people the secrets taught only to initiates under the pledge of secrecy.
The foregoing digression seemed necessary in order to show the real basis for the traditions of the Lost Word, and to put beyond cavil, at least with the more rational, the idea that the Master's Word is a real thing, the genuineness and power of which is not overdrawn in the parables and glyphs of Freemasonry.
"The True Word of a Mason is to be found in the concealed and profound meaning of the Ineffable Name of Deity communicated by God to Moses" (rather by the Priests of Egypt. — B.), "and which meaning was long lost by the very precautions taken to conceal it. The true pronunciation of that name
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was in truth a secret, in which, however, was in- volved the far more profound secret of its mean- ing." . . .
"Thus the Ineffable Name not only embodies the great Philosophical Idea, that the Deity is the Ens, the To On, the absolute Existence, that of which the Essence is To Exist, the only Substance of Spinoza, the Being, that never could not have existed, as con- tra-distinguished from that which only becomes ; not Nature or the Soul of Nature, but that which created Nature; but also the idea of the Male and Female Principles, in its highest and most profound sense : to wit, that God originally comprehended in Him- self all that is; that matter was not co-existent with Him or independent of Him; that He did not merely fashion and shape a pre-existing chaos into a universe; but that His Thought manifested itself outwardly in that universe, which so became, and before was not, except as comprehended in Him; that the Generative Power, or Spirit, and the Pro- ductive Matter, ever among the ancients deemed the Female, originally were in God, and that He Was and Is all that Was, that Is, and that Shall be; in whom all else lives, moves, and has its being." "This was the great Mystery of the Ineffable Name, . . . and of course its true pronunciation and its
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meaning became lost to all except the select few to whom it was confided; it being concealed from the common people, because the Deity, thus metaphys- ically named, was not that personal and capricious, and, as it were, tangible God in whom they believed, and who alone was within reach of their rude capac- ities. . . . This was the profound truth hidden in the ancient allegory and covered from the general view with a double veil. This was the exoteric meaning of the generation and production of the Indian, Chaldean, and Phoenician Cosmogonies; of the Active and Passive Powers; of the Male and Female Principles; of Heaven and its Luminaries generating, and the Earth producing; all hidden from vulgar view, as above its comprehension; the doctrine that matter is not eternal, but that God was the only original Existence, the Absolute, from Whom everything has proceeded, and to Whom all returns. . . . And this True Word is with en- tire accuracy said to have been lost, because its meaning was lost even among the Hebrews, although we still find the name (its real meaning unsus- pected) in the Hu of the Druids and Fo-Hi of the Chinese."*
*Morals and Dogma, p. 700 et seq.
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"There is in nature one most potent force, by means whereof a single man, who could possess himself of it, and should know how to direct it, could revolutionize and change the face of the world.
"This force was known to the ancients. It is a universal agent, whose supreme law is equilibrium; and whereby, if science can but learn how to con- trol it, it will be possible to change the order of the Seasons ; to produce in night the phenomena of day ; to send a thought in an instant round the world; to heal or slay at a distance ; to give our words uni- versal success, and make them reverberate every- where." This agent, partially revealed by the blind guesses of Mesmer, is precisely what the Adepts of the middle ages called "elementary matter of the great work."* And this is the force of the Keely Motor, and the Frohat of the Secret Doctrine. But to continue our quotations:
"There is a Life-Principle of the world, a uni- versal agent, wherein are two natures and a double current of love and wrath. This ambient fluid per- vades everything. It is a ray detached from the glory of the Sun, and fixed by the weight of the at-
*Morals and Dogma, p. 734.
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mosphere and the central attraction. It is the body of the Holy Spirit, the Universal Agent, the Ser- pent devouring his own tail." (See the Seal of the T. S.)
"With this electro-magnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, the ancients and the alchemists were familiar. Of this agent that phase of modern ignorance termed physical science talks incoher- ently, knowing naught of it save its effects; and theology might apply to it all its pretended defini- tions of spirit."
"Quiescent, it is appreciable by no human sense; disturbed, or in movement, none can explain its mode of action (except a real Master), and to term it a 'fluid' and speak of its 'currents/ is but to veil a profound ignorance under a cloud of words."*
"The Kabalah alone consecrates the alliance of the Universal Reason and Divine Word; it estab- lishes, by the counterpoise of two forces apparently opposite, the eternal balance of being; it alone reconciles Reason with Faith, Power with Liberty, Science with Mystery; it has the keys of the Pres- ent, the Past, and the Future."
"The Bible, with all the allegories it contains, ex-
*Morals and Dogma, p. 734.
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presses, in an incomplete and veiled manner only, the religious science of the Hebrews. The doctrine of Moses and the prophets, identical at bottom with that of the ancient Egyptians, also had its outward meaning and its veils. The Hebrew books were written only to recall to memory the traditions ; and they were written in Symbols unintelligible to the Profane. The Pentateuch and the prophetic poems were merely elementary books of doctrine, morals or liturgy ; and the true secret and traditional philos- ophy was only written afterward, under a veil still less transparent. Thus was a second Bible born, unknown to, or rather uncomprehended by, the Christians"' (of later times), "a collection, they say, of monstrous absurdities; a monument, the adept says, wherein is everything that the genius of phi- losophy and that of religion have ever formed or imagined of the Sublime; a treasure surrounded by thorns ; a diamond concealed in a rough dark stone." "One is filled with admiration on penetrating into the Sanctuary of the Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine so logical, so simple and at the same time so abso- lute. The necessary union of ideas and signs, the consecration of- the most fundamental realities by the primitive characters ; the Trinity of Words, Let- ters and Numbers; a philosophy simple as the al-
The Genius of Freemasonry. 107
phabet, profound and infinite as the World; The- orems more complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology summed up by counting on one's fingers; an Infinite which can be held in the hollow of an infant's hand; ten ciphers and twenty- two letters, a triangle, a square and a circle — these are all the elements of Kabalah. These are the elementary principles of the written Word, reflection of that spoken WTord that created the world."*
And so we might go on quoting from this real "Master of the Veils," this genuine Prince Adept among Masons, whose great work, even as a com- pilation, is a monument more enduring than brass, and more honorable than the crown of kings. If he did not comprehend to the last veil all that he tran- scribed— and he too used veils — he discerned enough to teach him how to find the whole. It may thus be seen that the Holy Bible as one of the Great Lights in Masonry has a very profound meaning when coupled with the tradition of the Ineffable Name, or Lost Word. The object set before the neophite in his search for the Lost Word, is, that he may travel in foreign countries and receive Master's
*Morals and Dogma, p. 475.
108 Mystic Masonry.
wages.t This glyph in its outer form is taken from the guilds of practical Masons of two or three cen- turies ago. The laws then governing the Mark of a Fellowcraft or a Master Builder were very strict, and the Mark was never bestowed unworthily, and when received was a passport among builders over a wide domain. But in a deeper, or Kabalistic sense, the Master's Word, which entitled its possessor to Master's wages, was a very different thing indeed. The wages of the real Master were the satisfaction and the power that flow from the possession of real knowledge. Knowledge is power only when one comprehends that which he possesses, and is, there- fore, enabled to use it for the purposes that lie near- est his heart. Bro. Pike shows conclusively that the power of the Word lies in the knowledge of the Philosophy which is its perfect synthesis. This is, in part, the meaning of "knowing how to pronounce the Word."
As already stated, the Kabalah of the ancient He- brews, which Moses derived by initiation into the mysteries of Egypt and Persia, and which Pike and many others declare was identical among the He-
t The wages of a real Master is Knowledge and Power to travel where he will in space.
The Genius of Freemasonry. 109
brews, the Egyptians, Hindus and other nations of antiquity, was known as the Secret Doctrine. The reason for such a name is fully revealed in what has been shown hitherto. What Pike says regarding the relation of the Pentateuch to the Kabalah, is true of the exoteric scriptures of every nation of an- tiquity.
How many generations of imbeciles or material- ists, think you, my Brother, would it require to re- cover it? The great majority of mankind in every age not only do not possess the secret and the power of the Master's Word, but are incapable of com- prehending it. We do not know a thing because we are told that it is so. Let the gods shout the truth of all the ages into the ears of a fool forever, and still forever the fool would be joined to his folly. Here lies the conception and the principle of all initia- tions. It is knowledge unfolded by degrees in an orderly, systematic manner, step by step, as the capacity to apprehend opens in the neophite. The result is not a possession, but a growth, an evolu- tion. Knowledge is not a mere sum in addition; something added to something that already exists; but rather such a progressive change or transfor- mation of the original structure as to make of it at every step a New Being. Real Knowledge, or the
no Mystic Masonry.
growth of Wisdom in man, is an Eternal Becoming; a progressive transformation into the likeness of the Supernal Goodness and the Supreme Power.
Initiation and Regeneration are synonymous terms.
The ritual of Freemasonry is based on this natural law, and the ceremony of initiation illustrates, at every step, this principle, and if the result attained 'is a possession rather than a regeneration, in the great majority of cases, the principle remains none the less true. The mere inculcation of moral prin- ciples, or lessons in ethics, and their symbolic illus- tration and dramatic representation, are by no means in vain. These appeal to the conscience and moral sense in every man, and no man has ever been made worse by the Lessons of the Lodge. By these "rites and benefits" the Freemason is, above all men, in our so-called Modern Civilization, the near- est to the Ancient Wisdom. He has possession of the territory in which lie concealed the Crown Jew- els of Wisdom. He may content himself, if he will, by merely turning over the sod and gathering only a crop of husks or stubble. He may dig deeper and find not only the Keystone of the Arch, the Ark of the Covenant, the Scroll or the Law, but, using the spirit concealed in the wings of the Cherubim,
The Genius of Freemasonry. in
he may rise untrammeled by the rubbish of the tem- ple, and, meeting Alohim face to face, learn also to say / am that I am! Does this read like a rhap- sody, and are the Landmarks, traditions, and glyphs of Freemasonry nothing more ?
The real temple referred to from first to last in Masonry, as in all ancient initiations, is the Taber- nacle of the Human Soul.
It is built, indeed, without the sound of hammer or any tool of iron. It is like (made in the likeness of) that other, spiritual temple, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ; for the old philosophy (Kabalah) teaches that the Immortal Spirit of man is the artificer of the body and its source of life; that it does not so much enter in, as overshadow man, while the Soul, the immediate vehicle of the Spirit, inhabits the body, and is dissipated at death. The Spirit is Immortal, pure, and forever undefiled. It is Christos, or Hiram, the Mediator between the Soul, or physical man, and the Universal Spirit — the Father in Heaven. The "poor, blind candidate," that is, the man of sense, immersed in matter, would learn the Ineffable Name, and obtain the Lost Word, and, seeking a short cut, "climbs up some other way." He would have wisdom without self- conquest, power without sacrifice. He will not lis-
ii2 Mystic Masonry.
ten to the voice of pleading, "Be patient, my brother, and when the temple is completed, if found worthy, you shall receive that for which you have so long wrought." No! he will have it now! and he silences the pleading voice, and, defeating only himself, flees into the deserts of remorse and calls upon the rocks to hide him from the pursuit of his accusing conscience. Hiram (Christos) is resur- rected. Being immortal, he can not really die. No sin of man is final. Realizing his error and purified by suffering, the spirit in man being again lifted up, even defeat gives promise of victory, and he re- ceives a Substitute for the Lost Word. He hears, however faint or dim, the Divine Harmony. Future generations, that is, further trials and more sincere endeavor, promise greater reward. He learns to "know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent." Brotherly love, Relief and Truth; Prudence, Forti- tude, Justice and Mercy — all the Virtues and all the Beatitudes are inculcated.
The candidate is taught, not merely to tolerate an- other's religion, but to respect it as his own ; though still adhering to that into which he was born. To make reasonable this obligation, he is shown through the Kabalah or Secret Doctrine that at the heart of every great religion lie the same eternal truths.
The Genius of Freemasonry. 113
Forms and observances only differ. The Ineffable Name is spelled in many ways, yet the Word is one and eternal. Masonry is not only a universal sci- ence, but a world-wide religion, and owes allegiance to no one creed, and can adopt no sectarian dogma, as such, without ceasing thereby to be Masonic. Drawn from the Kabalah, and taking the Jewish or Christian verbiage or symbols, it but discerns in them universal truths, which it recognizes in all other religions. Many degrees have been Chris- tianized only to perish; as every degree eventually will if circumscribed by narrow creeds, and dwarfed to the bigoted apprehension, so as to exclude good men of any other communion. Is Jesus any the less Christos, because Christna was called "the Good Shepherd"? or because the Mexican Christ was crucified between two thieves? or because Hiram was three days in a grave before he was resur- rected? Are we not as selfish in our religion as in our other possessions? Then why is man, while cherishing as his most sacred possession, the reli- gion of his fathers, eternally seeking to degrade and destroy that of his brother?
The Great Republic, to which Bro. Pike refers, is the Ideal of Masonry ; the Genius that hovers like a protecting angel over the Lodge. Make it impos-
H4 Mystic Masonry.
sible for a Jew or Parsee, Buddhist or Brahmin, to enter any Lodge without witnessing the profanation of his sacred altars or contempt for his religion, and the angel hides her face and retreats from altars already profaned by unbrotherliness. Masonry is the Universal Religion only because, and only so long as, it embraces all religions. For this reason, and this alone, it is universal and eternal. Neither persecution nor misrepresentation can ever destroy it. It may find no place in a generation of bigots; it may retire for a century; but again comes a Mas- ter Builder with the Key to the "Shut Palace of the King," throws open the blinds, lets in the light, kindles anew the fire on the sacred altar, clears away the rubbish, when behold ! the tesselated pave- ment is as bright as when it first came from the quar- ries of truth, the jewels are of pure gold and brighten at the touch, and the great lights are un- dimmed and undecayed. "When the candidate is ready the Master appears." And vet men are so foolish and so vile as to imagine that they can de- stroy this heirloom of the ages; this heritage from the Immortals ! No age is so dark as to quench en- tirely the light of the Lodge; no persecution so bloody as to blot out its votaries; no anathemas of Popes so lasting as to count one second on its Dial
The Genius of Freemasonry. 115
of Time ! These, one and all, serve only to keep the people in darkness, and retard the reign of Uni- versal Brotherhood. Therefore for humanity — the Great Orphan — the real Master laments. He smiles at the passions of Popes or Kings and pities the folly of man. He only waits indifferent as to re- sults, knowing these to be under eternal law; but ready and willing, whenever and wherever the in- struction entering the listening ear may find lodg- ment in the faithful breast. For ages Kings, Popes and Synods have done their best to kill this Secret Doctrine by anathematizing or burning its Masters. The Jesuits got possession of its Lodges, trans- formed out of all recognition many of its degrees, and made of them an abject tool of the Sacerdotal hierarchy.
But at last the Jesuits became glutted with gold and impudent with power, and the Church became frightened and destroyed or banished the destroyers. Will power in high places ever desist or relax its warfare ? Never ! It can, however, be forever ig- nored or defied; but it will never allow its secrets to be laid bare, and a greater to stand in its place. He who anticipates such beneficence has read his- tory in vain. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, but it is moral force, or moral courage, and
n6 Mystic Masonry.
the first great battle is for the conquest of self; the subjugation of that time-serving spirit, which, joined to the idols of the flesh, is blind to the truths of the eternal spirit. He who conquers here may at last become Master.
The Secret Doctrine. 117