"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 wil l 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 affir
ms 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 advan cement, 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 counteract
ing 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 an
cient 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 densificati on of the material body and consequent at rophy
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 sy mbols hitherto
appertaining to the central figures of prece ding 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 AS
TRONOMY 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 myste ries 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 be lieve, 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, "Ic habod", - "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 sh aping himself into a "living stone" for the c osmic
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, a nd that they and their oc cupants 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 beyo nd 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 spiritua labour, 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.