MYSTICSM OF MASONRY

The Mysteries recognize man actually as a living temple wherein may become domiciled God, the Father of Light, which Light is life and immortality. This is the same temple concerning which we are taught in the Biblical narrative as well as in exoteric Masonry, that it was made without sound of hammer or any noise whatsoever. These Mysteries had for their object, as they still have, the uniting of the awakened (Spiritually Initiated) men into a Universal Brotherhood in which right (true kindness of heart governed by exact justice) is might; a Brotherhood that exercises benevolence, practices virtue (without a smug complacency) and the arts, and studies coordinately the laws of both Nature and God (as they are and not as foolish man would have them be), ready to accept them as of equal importance in the life of man while on the earth plane.
All Masonry of the past dealt largely with the ethics and symbolism of the Ancient Mysteries. If the Masons of the present age will but seek for the spirit of the symbolism upon which the degrees are based, the grandest achievements in knowledge and reconstruction will be possible and the mysteries concealed in the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity will be recovered to them. In its ritualism and monitorial lessons, Masonry teaches nothing in morals, in science, in religion or in any other department of human knowledge or human interest, not taught elsewhere in current forms of thought or by the sages of the past. In these directions it has no secrets of any kind. It is in the ancient symbols of Freemasonry that its real secrets lie concealed and these are as densely veiled to the Mason as to any other, unless he has studied the science of symbolism in general and Masonic symbolism in particular. If, lacking a knowledge of the profound meaning of Masonic symbolism and its transcendent interest and importance, Masons have allowed the whole organization not only to fail in all real progress but to degenerate, that is indeed a reproach.
There never was a greater need than at the present time, never so great an opportunity as now, for Masonry to assume its true place among the institutions of man and to force recognition by the simple power of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth, based upon philosophy such as nowhere else exists outside of its ancient symbols. If the majority of Masons do not realize the true significance and value of their possessions, there is all the more need for those who do to speak out, even in the face of discouragement and detraction, and do their utmost to demonstrate the truth. In brief, then, the real secrets of freemasonry lie in its symbols, and the meaning of the symbols reveals a profound philosophy and a Universal Science, that have never been transcended by man.
The force of the obligation is therefore in the obligation 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’ of the Roentgen Ray of modern science. Every word, in fact, every letter, creates a vibration and in the vibration there is either life or death as there are but two points, the one point being life and the other death; the pendulum, which in this case, is the type or kind of vibration created by words, must swing to one side or the other.
When we assume an obligation, we call certain forces into being. These forces are held in suspension -or under control- so long as we act in harmony with them. If we betray the spirit, then all control ceases and the created vibrations held in suspension become malicious toward the creator of them and return to rend and destroy. One who is false to an obligation, thereby has loosened a destructive force which can return only to the creator of it. God does not punish man. So-called punishment is the return to himself of the forces created by himself, which on betrayal, return to destroy. In other words, man is not punished for his deeds but by his deeds. It is for this reason that almost forty per cent of those who enter the Secret Fraternity ultimately bring about their own destruction, entering as they do, for utterly selfish, though hidden, reasons. Then because of their inimical spirit, they are unable to secure that which they sought, betray the spirit and purpose of their obligation and so bring upon themselves swift and undefyable punishment.
The whole design of freemasonry as a speculative science is the investigation of Divine Truths. To this great object everything else is subsidiary. The Mason is, from the time of his initiation as an Entered Apprentice, to the time at which he receives the full fruition of Masonic Light, an investigator- a laborer in the quarry and the temple- whose reward is to be truth [wisdom], and all the ceremonies and traditions of the Order tend to this ultimate design. In Speculative Freemasonry there is an advancement from a lower to a higher state- from darkness [ignorance] to light [wisdom]- from death to life- from error to truth- [from mortality into Immortality]. The Mason living and working in the world as his lodge, must seek to raise himself out of it [symbolized by the raising of Hiram from the grave] to that eminence which surmounts it, where alone he can find divine truths.

The truth about the 'Antients' and the 'Moderns'

The truth about the 'Antients' and the 'Moderns'
By Bro. Jeff Peace
Rose Cross of Gold

For many Freemasons the schism between the 'Moderns' and the 'Antients' is a
thing of the remote past. Most believe that it was over the usage of the
secret passwords used during the degrees and never give it any further
consideration. Looking back does it seem reasonable that the entire Masonic
organization would have splintered in two over something so simple? Is it
possible that there was something much deeper taking place - something as
shrouded in secrecy today as it was two hundred and fifty years ago?



As a historian it is my job to ask such probing questions and, if possible,
attept to uncover the answers. Much of the written history of Freemasonry
was written by men who could only speculate upon the details because they
had little, if any, material from the early period of Freemasonry from which
to work. Oliver, Mackey, Pike, Hall, and Wilmshurst were forced to work from
the material they had available at the time they wrote their famous works.
Serious Masonic scholarship wouldn't begin until the 1960's with the
scholarly works of Yates. Today Masons have more accurate material to work
with than at any other point in Masonic history. In 2002 the Russian
government returned thousands of manuscripts, stolen by the Nazis in World
War II, to their rightful owners in Paris and the Netherlands. This is
original material from the eighteenth century when Freemasonry first began.
It is from these documents that any serious history of the conflict between
the 'Moderns' and the 'Antients' must be derived.



The purpose of this paper isn't to discover who was right and who was wrong,
but to discover the details of what ultimately led to the schism. It is
believed that the schism came to an end with the formation of the United
Grand Lodge of England in 1813, when the two opposing Grand Lodges merged.
This, however, may not necessarily be entirely accurate.



The 'Moderns' are typically portrayed as elitists and the 'Antients' as
commoners. This has led to the belief that the 'Moderns' were composed
primarily of educated men, and the 'Antients' were uneducated peasants and
soldiers. On the surface this does indeed appear to be true, but when we
look through the membership rolls of the 'Antients' we discover the names of
many educated men as well as those of certain members of the nobility. This
begs the question "could this schism have really been over secret passwords
and the refusal of some 'Modern' lodges to admit Irish Masons?" The
available evidence suggests something far deeper. Before evaluating the
evidence we need to take a brief look at the merger of 1813 and the changes
in society that led up to it.



The philosophical movement that led to the birth of Freemasonry is commonly
referred to as the Enlightenment. This movement was built upon the ideas
passed down to it by philosophers from the Age of Reason; men such as Sir
Francis Bacon, Renee Descartes, and Benedict Spinoza. The Enlightenment is
characterized by the abandoning of faith for reason. The concepts of human
rights, modern democracy and the equality of people were given birth to
during this period. Science and mathematics went from being heresies and
forms of magic to legitimate disciplines at the universities.



At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a reaction within
society led by certain minor philosophers of the Counter-Enlightenment such
as F. H. Jacobi. Jacobi is usually closely associated with the Romantic
movement and their opposition to the Enlightenment concept of sufficient
reason. Sufficient reason is where all things can be explained through
scientific inquiry and logic. The Romantics saw this as a form of
determinism that effectively removed the concept of freedom of will.



The merger of the two Grand Lodges takes place at a point in history where
the ideas of the Enlightenment were falling victim to the moral fears of the
Romantics. It is also worth noting that the 'Antients' had far more lodges
than the 'Moderns' and out numbered them in Masons significantly. I think
it is safe to say that 'Moderns' simply gave up their quest to continue with
their Enlightenment based ideas.



So what exactly did the 'Moderns' hope to accomplish? What were the
differences that separated these two groups of Freemasons? In short, it was
moral philosophy. The 'Moderns' taught that the Great Architect of the
Universe was eminent in his creation while the 'Antients' taught that he was
transcendent and not even involved in the creation. To the 'Moderns' the
deity was ever present and beyond good and evil. To the 'Antients' the
Cosmos was the creation of a demiergos and the deity was altogether
transcendent of both the demiergos and the Cosmos because all physical
matter was unclean and/or evil.



Ultimately, the argument would come down to a debate over the ideas of
Benedict Spinoza verses those of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The 'Moderns'
viewed Spinoza's Geometrical Morality as the key to uniting mankind into one
great universal brotherhood. The 'Antients' saw this as pure heresy and
adopted Leibniz as their patron saint because of his open opposition to
Spinoza and his support of Judeo-Christian cosmology. By the time of the
merger in 1813 Jacobi and the Romantics were also ardent supporters of
Leibniz.



Throughout the nineteenth century the 'Antients' flourished around the
globe, but more especially in the United States. Then, in 1905, a previously
unknown scientist shook the world with a radical new view of the universe.
Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity ended once and for all the
debate over Leibniz' cosmology. In one brief moment of history the entire
philosophy of the 'Antients' was rendered incorrect. When Einstein was asked
whether or not he believed in god, his reply was "In Spinoza's god."



The early 'Moderns' had been right in their beliefs but it would take almost
200 years to prove it. Unfortunately, for both humanity and Freemasonry the
'Antients' had nothing of value to offer in Einstein's new cosmology. It was
at this point that Freemasonry was set adrift on a high sea without a
guiding star. The philosophy and symbolism of the 'Moderns' had been lost
and forgotten. In 1949 things begin to look better for Freemasonry in
America. It was the beginning of the Age of Social fraternities, and
Freemasonry had the Shrine. Finally, after fifty years of wandering
aimlessly the 'Antients' had found something they could sell and people
would buy. The Shrine reigned supreme up until the 1960's when social
fraternities began to fade. At the beginning of the 21st century Freemasonry
had declined to less than fifty percent of what it had once been.

On December 27th, 2005 a new Grand Lodge was formed based upon the
principles and ideas of the 'Moderns.' The United Grand Lodge of America is
dedicated to continuing the pursuit of the brotherhood of all mankind
through the same peculiar system of Geometrical Morality envisioned by the
'Moderns' of 1717. The United Grand Lodge of America offers a unique form of
natural philosophy, the same as that of Thomas Jefferson. It supports a
progressive scientific agenda believing that through knowledge and
understanding mankind can overcome the many obstacles it faces today. The
United Grand Lodge of America isn't your grandfather's Freemasonry; it is
the Freemasonry of the 21st century.

The Formation of the Three Degree Structure

The Formation of the Three Degree Structure
It is customary today for us to speak of the Three Degrees in Craft Masonry. We just accept this and think nothing about how this all came about. The Three Degree system has not existed from time immemorial. It all came about to our Order over a long period of time and in a somewhat laborious manner. The whole change was not an overnight arrangement, but rather grew up over a period of years. In fact, the early years of this change were times of great turbulence. Much of these historic events have been shrouded, in mystery and confusion. The eventual sorting out period by our Masonic historians was done in the face of minimal historical evidence, and a large amount of reasonable assumption. Even today, some Masonic writers still find it a common ground on which to agree to disagree. And because of this lack of historical evidence it would be safe to say that the perplexing questions of the existence and growth of the three degrees, will remain a Masonic discussion point for centuries to come.

One thing is reasonably certain - prior to the early eighteenth century, two degrees were worked, the Entered Apprentice Degree and the Fellowcraft Degree. To confirm the issue, one of the ancient manuscripts, the Edinburgh Register House Ms. of 1696 and the Sloan Ms. of 1659 refer to two degrees, whilst the Trinity College Dublin Ms. of 1711 and the Graham Ms. of 1726 refer to three degrees. And so the argument has carried on for years. In these observations then, we can only give a broad spectrum of the sequence of events that led up to the establishment of the three degree system in our Order.

As our Masonic historians have agreed to disagree on the interpretation of much of the evidence, there is of a consequence no over-riding authority available to say who is right and who is wrong. Let us first look at the word "degree". In its primitive form the word was used by the Operative masons as a method of acquiring different grades of skills, which usually consisted of Apprentices, Journeymen and Masters. (It is pointed out here that later in the sequence of events, one of the big events that caused confusion centered around the interpretation and use of the word Master). To the Speculative mason the word "degree" infers the use of some form of ceremony which would advance the candidate to a higher rank, after he had had communicated to him certain distinguishing words, signs, grip and tokens.

Thus it is reasonable to assume that the Speculative mason attained different ranks of speculative knowledge. Today, the word "degree" indicates a reward of advancing through an esoteric ceremony to a higher degree by the method of communicating words, signs, grips and tokens. A knowledge of the definitions of the words are necessary to make a good foundation towards the understanding of the history of the Masonic degrees.

Although we have a considerable amount of material available to us regarding Freemasonry generally in the pre-Grand Lodge era, there is very little information available to give us an idea of the internal workings of the lodges at that particular time. At this stage it may be as well to remember that at that time in history, when all of this was happening, it was a time of illiteracy. Very few people could either read or write. Hence the bulk of much that happened was handed down by word of mouth. This then was the basic cause of confusion in historical records which resulted. We have seen the results of this in many other aspects of the history of man. Quite a deal of our so called "facts" concerned with these early events have been handed down through the Gothic Constitutions of the seventeenth century. Many of these, fortunately, have been preserved. In some cases to be very valuable historically. But like a great deal of the worlds aging history, some of the confusion is brought back about by the matter of interpretation.

A further source of information is the various Exposures of Freemasonry, that have come to light from time to time. Exposures assumed great prominence after about 1723. Whilst these exposures furnish the historian with valuable historical evidence, as exposures they had little effect on the acceptance of Freemasonry. Other information that one would reasonably expect to carry unlimited historical events and data, is not as readily available as one would wish. This is Lodge Minutes.

Permit the writer to digress for a short time to emphasise the tremendous importance of Lodge minutes today. They will become the major source of the history of the lodge. Unlike many ideas of our present day, too much information cannot be placed in lodge minutes; and much more care should be given to the preservation of these records.

Lodge Minutes of the early days extend back as far as 1598 and are, in the main, of Scottish origin. Only two English Lodges have minutes preserved of the pre-1717 era, and they are from Alnwick 1701 and Yorke 1712. So much information in this regard is lost forever. So, the major source of information regarding the degrees within the Order were the Manuscripts and Charges. They quite definitely marked the existence of the Two Degree System; the First and Second Degrees. By looking at the dates of the Sloane and Dublin Manuscripts it would appear as though the Three Degree System began to appear somewhere between 1659 and 1711.

Stop and ponder for a short while - think of the many similarities of the present First and Second Degree. Think of their general structure and language. The consider the tremendous difference in the structure and language of the Third Degree. The Hiramic Legend, surrounded by the Third Degree, did not happen overnight. This came to fruition over a period of time. There is no cut and dried date for this period of time. The acceptance of the additional degree was not accepted on bloc - for some time it caused great turbulence amongst the Fraternity. In the years prior to the formation of the First Grand Lodge, Lodges were answerable to no central point or control, and consequently they had no uniformity in ceremonial workings.

According to the Graham Manuscript the Third Degree Legend was known in some form in the 17th Century. The phrase "Sublime Degree of a Master Mason" was used on a Grand Lodge Certificate of Ireland in 1754. There is also record that it was used in 1767 by the Lodge of Friendship No. 6. But it does not seem to be in general use until the end of the seventeenth century. The earliest known reference to the degree in Lodge Minutes in London occurred in 1727. So, taking a broad view of the confusing material available, and the reasonable assumptions made due to the lack of historical evidence, it would be, again, reasonable to assume that the Third-Degree System grew up by a gradual process between 1717 and 1730. That is about as precise as we can be.

As a matter of interest, the Third Degree System is said to have been a "fact" in

France in 1731

Scotland in 1735

Sweden in 1737

This proved to be a very unstable period in the History of Freemasonry. As one would expect some lodges were openly against the re-arrangement of the Degrees, particularly in Scotland. This of course made the fixing of a precise date of change even more hazardous.



(Unknown Brother, Hyde Park Bankers Lodge No.193, South Australia)

The History of Freemasonry

The History of Freemasonry

Almost every Freemason learns sooner or later, that the first Grand Lodge in the world is founded on the feast of St. John the Baptist, on the 24th of June, 1717, in the Goose and Gridion, St.Paul’s churchyard in London, when the representatives of four existing Lodges came together.

It is a fact, that all other Grand Lodges in the world accept, that the Grand Lodge of England is the most senior in years, and from that derives all rights, that come with this.

The Lodges, who became part of this formation. And all other Lodges, who existed in that time, must therefore have given themselves charters somehow, they must have given themselves a constitution, because there was simply no Grand Lodge who could have given charters to them. Later, but still in the same century, the Grand Lodge of York claimed, that they were in any case at least fifty years before 1717 a Grand Lodge then the United Grand Lodge of England.

Before I continue here, we need the definition of a Grand Lodge. These days, a Grand Lodge needs to be a independent, sovereign body, which is not obedient towards any other Masonic body. This demand excludes therefore every Provincial Grand Lodge and also all other Lodges who work under the charter of a different Grand East.

A Grand Lodge, which never has given out any charters, will, even if she fulfills all other demands, be only a ‘nominal’ Grand Lodge, one in name only, if it is a Grand Lodge at all.

All English, and Scottish Lodges, except one, who existed before 1717, would pass the test of independency, but they gave out no charters, and were therefore not Grand Lodges.

After the Grand Lodge of 1717 gave out a book of constitutions in 1723, the existence of such rules has become more and more a demand for the establishment of a rightful Grand Lodge. But, this demand is merely a invention of the UGLE as we can see.

One of the Lodges, who existed from before 1717, was the one who is now at the head on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and carries number 0 [ number zero ] . This Lodge, Mother Kilwinning, is one of which the constitution dates from ‘befor 1598’.

The Lodge Kilwinning was self-constituted, very independent, and did not need to pay any obedience to whatever superior body before 1736, when the Grand Lodge of Scotland was constituted. The history of Kilwinning is a extraordinary one, and after you have finished reading, you can see easily, that Mother Kilwinning was the first Grand Lodge on earth, even when we go by the definitions of a Grand Lodge, as given by the UGLE.

The date mostly given, when the Abbey of Kilwinning is mentioned, is 1140. About that period, the Pope created corporations or brotherhoods of masons, and gave them special privileges and immunities, with the goal to send Italian artists, who were famous for church building, abroad, to erect churches in other countries. A company of these foreign masons seem to have come to Kilwinning, in order to build the Abbey of Kilwinning, and they have erected the first regular constituted Lodge of Scotland.

The Lodges were held in the Chapterhouse, a room measuring 38 by19 feet, which lay at the eastside of the Abbey. On the broken walls and crumpled bows of the Abbey, one can still see some very nice Masonic marks.

When the Abbey was being built, inhabitants of the city of Kilwinning were hired to help with the project, because there were only a few other masons available at that time. To gain the trust and the help of the population, to create interest in the construction of an enormous large religious building like the Abbey, the population of Kilwinning was paid largely with privileges. They were allowed to learn the secret of the trade of the mason-monks, and they were given, by the Pope himself, the right to call themselves Freemasons, wherever they went.

And so, the ancient and worthy Lodge Mother Kilwinning is established in the Chapterhouse, where, according to the stories, the first Masonic meeting was held, and the recruits from the population of Kilwinning were initiated in the vital secrets of the Ancient Free and Accepted Scottish Rite.

Kilwinning created the Lodges Scoon and Bertha [ now Scone and Perth ] in about the year 1193, as we can see from a charter, which is now in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Little else is known about the early history of Mother Kilwinning, because all the early records are lost.

Tradition tells us that the records of the Lodge were taken by the monks to France, after the fall of Catholicism in Scotland. It is, however, reasonable to accept that with the destruction of the Abbey the records are also gone.

After the Grand Lodges of Kilwinning and York had been established [ the jurisdiction and infinity of the Grand Lodge of York has been long since accepted throughout Freemasonry ] Freemasonry grew quickly in both kingdoms, and various Lodges were erected in various parts of the island.

Scottish Freemasonry had as her Grandmaster always their king. He, if he wasn't a Freemason himself, appointed one of the brethren, to act as his deputy at meetings, and to see to it that all affairs concerning Freemasonry was done according the rules. James I [ 1406-37 ] was Royal Grand Master till he arranged a yearly income of four Scottish pounds, to be paid by each Master mason in Scotland to a Grandmaster, who was elected by the Brethren, and approved of by the crown.

James II [ 1437-60 ] was also a Freemason, but gave the job of Grandmaster to William St. Clair, the builder of Roslyn Chapel, Earl of Orkney and Caithness, and to his heirs. The Roslyn family stood without interruption at the head of Freemasonry in Scotland, till 1736, when William St.Clair, the last heir from the direct male line, gave back the title to the Scottish Lodges.

The ancient mother Lodge possesses other Masonic degrees, then the Johaniter, or blue degrees. Laurie, for instance, writes in his book: history of Freemasonry, that the Knight Templars of Scotland, when their order was persecuted, fled to Robert de Bruce. Robert de Bruce created the Masonic order Heredum de Kilwinning after the battle of Bannockburn [ 1314 ] , and claimed for himself, and his successors, the title of Grandmaster. The last Stuart still believed that he had that right, and gave charters to Lodges on the continent. This “Royal Order” is still in high esteem in France, where it was created with a charter from Scotland, and even by the Pretender himself.

The creation of this branch of Freemasonry on the continent is remembered by a medal, which is made in Paris, and which, amongst others, carries the Arms of Scotland. The brothers of the Lodge in Arras still have an original charter of the Order, handed to them in 1747, by Charles Edward Stuart, and signed by this unfortunate prince himself, as a representative of the Scottish kings.

The oldest records now in possession of the Lodge are from December 20, 1642, however a document, found in Englington Castle with the title" the statues and ordinances to be observant be all the masters maissonis within his realme, sett doune by William Shaw, maister of Wark to his Maiestie and General Wardene of the said Craft, with concent ot the Maiesteris efter Specifeit” that goes about the Lodge Kilwinning, is from 1598.

In 1736, St.Clair of Roslyn, grandmaster of Scotland, called a meeting of 32 Lodges in and around Edinburgh, and gave all rights, and other titles, that he or his heirs had, back as Grandmaster of the Freemasons of Scotland. Thus the Grand Lodge of Scotland [ GLoS ] was created at November 30, 1738.

Mother Kilwinning was represented by proxy, and from her midst the first officers of the Grand Lodge were chosen, and she stayed there for several years, until the brothers wanted to number the Lodges, according to their infinity. The point of infinity was naturally claimed by Kilwinning, but was contradicted by the Lodge St. Mary’s Chapel in Roslyn, who claimed to have older written records than Mother Kilwinning. That is how St. Mary’s Chapel became no.1, and Mother Kilwinning no.2. This verdict was of course very much against the representatives of Kilwinning, and therefore, Kilwinning left the Grand Lodge in 1743, regained her independent status, and started to give out charters again. These daughter Lodges did not stay restricted to Scotland, because Lodges were created, from Kilwinning, in Ireland, US, Antigua, and the Caribbean's.

We can see that the Lodge Mother Kilwinning gave out at least 12 charters to Lodges, before the forming of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736, which she later joined again. It is also clear that at least two of those Lodges had been erected in 1678, nearly 40 years before the meeting in the Goose and Gridion in London. We can state safely, even with the rules of the UGLE , that Mother Kilwinning was the first Grand Lodge who worked as a Grand Lodge in the world. Perhaps we can even go a bit further.

The present Grand Lodge of England is, as I already stated here before, not the same as the original one from 1717. The present UGLE was created in 1813, when the original Grand Lodge, and York, finally decided to work together, and the now well known UGLE appeared. It is usual under the English constitution that when two Lodges, or Grand Lodges, merge together the most ancient Grand Lodge gets priority qua status.

If we continue this line of argumentation to Mother Kilwinning, who finally joined the GLoS again in 1818, it is logical to justify the infinity of Kilwinning as a Grand Lodge, when she joined the GLoS. And this, brothers and sisters, would give a date at least from 1195 for the oldest Grand Lodge in the world... Mother Kilwinning.

So mote it be.

Legitimate Masonry?

Legitimate Masonry?

Who gets to decide which Freemasonry is legitimate and which Freemasonry is illegitimate? Should a Masonic body be considered more legitimate merely because it has a larger membership? Because it is older?

When African Lodge, the first Prince Hall lodge in the world began issuing charters for other African American lodges, it did not have a warrant to do so from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, the Grand Lodge of England or any other Grand Body. Does this mean that from 1827 when African Lodge declared itself a Grand Lodge, till 1995 when Prince Hall Grand Lodges were given charters by the United Grand Lodge of England, that they were illegitimate? Irregular? Does this mean that all of the Prince Hall Grand Lodges in US states which still lack a charter, and recognition from their white counterparts are illegitimate? Does this mean that all of the Prince Hall masons who were initiated, passed, raised and labored in the quarries
from 1827 onward, and gave so much of their time and love to the craft were illegitimate? irregular?

We believe that African Lodge did what it had to in declaring itself independent of any other Grand Body and establishing itself as the first Prince Hall Grand Lodge. We believe that the Grand Lodge of France did the right thing by granting the universal recognition of all Prince Hall Grand Lodges in the United States, for which it lost favor with the larger white Grand Lodges.
Sometimes, doing what your conscience, or the Grand Architect requires of you isn't easy, but we believe that in the long run, it brings far more blessings.

What most masons are unaware of is the significance of the letters A.F. & A.M. which most of the larger Grand Lodges in the United States bear in their name. It stands for "Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons". This means that these Grand Lodges were originally chartered, not by the Grand Lodge of England, but the schismatic "Ancients Grand Lodge" which eventually merged with the Grand Lodge to form the United Grand Lodge of England in 1813. Does this mean that all of the masons who were initiated, passed and raised in Ancients Grand Lodges in the United States, Britain and Ireland from 1751 until 1813 were merely "illegitimate masons" to use a certain commentator's own words? These masons felt that the other "Moderns" or "Premier" Grand Lodge's ritual practices deviated from Masonic tradition so greatly that they were illegitimate.

Common sense would, and indeed does tell most people that having a one-day class in which hundreds of masons are made, simply by watching the degrees at a distance with no time for absorption or proficiency requirements, or as in many lodges in England and overseas the reading of the third degree legend to the candidate rather than putting him through a proper and traditional raising are not only unrecognizeable as legitimate, traditional or regular masonry, and yet they point the finger at others and call them fake? Not only can you take all three degrees of Craft masonry in a day, but you can join the Scottish Rite all in the same day! Does this facilitate true learning, or merely the collection of more money in a shorter period of time?

When the American Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, they not only declared their independence from the rule of another nation which was distant from their desires, ideas and hopes, but from a system where power over others was an entitlement by birth, an aristocracy which fattened itself by taxing the working man without any representation or freedom by which he could become master of his own destiny. We, the American Colonies found that such a system of government was not good for our lives. Why is it that in Freemasonry we continue to argue in favor of such a system of entitlement by birth, saying with great passion that those Grand Bodies "born into" such favor are the only such "legitimate heirs" of Freemasonry, even when they have so clearly and egregiously strayed from Masonic tradition? They have authored for themselves a series of laws and executed them in their own kangaroo courts, creating precedents and inventing doctrines which benefit them and no one else, least of all the craft itself. We declare that all true Freemasons are the legitimate heirs of Freemasonry.

It is in the spirit of the American Colonies and the first Prince Hall Grand Lodge declaring their independence that masons of the Regular Grand Lodge of England have declared their independence. They have declared their independence from the very same system of aristocratic entitlement that the American Colonies did, quite literally!

American Grand Bodies who have received a charter from said Grand Lodge, and joined this same movement have not done so out of some naivete, believing they have made contact with some other fabulous and ancient institution as some commentators suppose. We have done so out of our sincere wish for liberty, equality and light and to be a part of a rapidly growing international community of masons throughout the world who share our desire to preserve the traditional insitutions of Freemasonry unhindered by racism, feelings of self-entitlement or the weakening of her sublime institutions.

Why should our presence be seen as a problem for the larger Grand Bodies? Our desire is only for more light. It is our sincerest hope that all masons throughout the world will one day come to respect Freemasonry as much or even more than we have. It is our hope that one day they will also give the same care to her traditions, ideas and symbols, if not even more than we ourselves could hope to.

The Freemasonry which we practice is no mere Service Club, but a living Tradition of intellectual and spiritual englightenment for men of all creeds and colors. It is our sincerest hope that the larger Masonic organizations will allow the same traditions to flourish once more for their sake, and that they will forever put away intolerance and racial segregation. We cannot, however, stand idly by while one opportunity after another for more light is missed. It is time for us to declare our independence, and we have done so.

To those detractors and call us "illegitimate” without considering or knowing what may lie in our hearts, we extend the love of the Almighty Creator, and hope that one day they too will have a desire for light which exceeds their fear. When they say, or even suggest that our presence in America or elsewhere is a problem for them, and that an "unstoppable juggernaut" has been released, what is it that they are really saying? Why should our presence bother them in the least since we are so small and insignificant? They presume to tell the poor, uninformed member of all such "illegitimate" obediences that he is really just an "illegitimate mason", for his own good of course, because he couldn't possibly have knowingly chosen the Grand Lodge he did. What does all of this say about them? More importantly, If this movement within masonry continues to grow as fast as it has in such a short period of time, then what does this say about man's desire for More Light?

These commentators talk about Grand Lodges that charge overly large sums of money for degree work and then talk about us in the same breath, calumniating all of the organizations in their list without any clarification or justification for what they are saying, as if all were one and the same. We invite anyone to look into our practices and see if our joining fees are any greater than what you'd pay in any other lodge, or if any of our officers are earning the large paychecks that Grand Officers in the large Masonic bodies do.

Our claim to Regularity rests on this and this alone: it stems entirely from our own adherence and faithfulness to the traditional customs and original aims and purposes of Craft Freemasonry, the absence of bigotry in our lodges, and the complete absence of any other Masonic institutions in our geographical locations who meet these requirements.

We formally invite all masons, Masonic lodges and Grand Bodies large or small to discuss with us how best to carry on the Traditions of the Ancient Fraternity which we all love so much. To all men and masons with a sincere desire for light, we are your companions whether you agree with our ideas and actions or not.

Men of intelligence and good conscience must decide what is best for themselves. We invite all men who believe in the Almighty Creator, regardless of faith, language, skin color or nationality, whether they are considering initiation for the first time, or have labored in the quarries of Freemasonry for many years, to take a look at our lodges, and judge us not by what others may say about us, but by the fruits of our true labors.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE CROSS? IS IT SIMPLY AN INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE AS USUALLY TAUGHT IN THE ORTHODOX RELIGION?

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE CROSS? IS IT SIMPLY AN INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE AS USUALLY TAUGHT IN THE ORTHODOX RELIGION?

ANSWER: Like all other symbols, the meanings of the cross are many. Plato gave one of these meanings when he said, "The Worldsoul is crucified," that is to say: We have four kingdoms in the world-- the mineral, the plant, the animal and the man.

The mineral kingdom ensouls all chemical substance of whatever kind, so that the cross, of whatever material it is made, is first a symbol of that kingdom.

The upright lower limb of the cross is a symbol of the plant kingdom because the currents of the group spirits which give life to the plants come from the center of the earth where these group spirits are located and reach out toward the periphery of our planet and into space.

The upper limb of the cross is the symbol of man, because the life currents of the human kingdom pass downward from the sun through the vertical spine. Thus man is the inverted plant, for as the plant takes its food through the root, passing it UPWARD, so does the man take his nourishment by way of the head, passing it DOWNWARD. The plant is chaste, pure and passionless, and stretches its creative organ, the flower, chastely and unashamed TOWARD THE SUN, a thing of beauty and delight. Man turns his passion filled generative organ TOWARD THE EARTH. Man inhales the life giving oxygen and exhales the poisonous carbon dioxide. The plant takes the poison exhaled by man, building its body therefrom, and returning to us the elixir of life, the cleansed oxygen.

Between the plant and the human kingdom stands the animal with the horizontal spine, and in the horizontal spine the life currents of the animal group spirit play as they circle around our globe. Therefore the horizontal limb of the cross is the symbol of the animal kingdom.

In esotericism the cross was never looked upon as an instrument of torture, and it was not until the sixth century that the crucified Christ was shown in pictures. Previous to that time the symbol of the Christ was a cross and a lamb resting at its foot, to convey the idea that at the time when the Christ was born the sun at the vernal equinox crossed the equator in the sign Aries, the Lamb. The symbols of the different religions have always been made in that way. At the time when the sun by precession crossed the vernal equinox in the sign Taurus, the Bull, a religion was founded in Egypt where they worshiped the Bull Apis in the same sense that we worship the Lamb of God. At a much earlier date, we hear of the Norse God Thor driving his twin goats across the sky. That was at the time when the vernal equinox was in the sign Gemini, the Twins. At the time of the birth of Christ, the vernal equinox was in about 7 degrees of Aries, the Lamb, therefore our Savior was called the Lamb of God. There was a dispute in the earlier centuries regarding the propriety of having the lamb as a symbol of our Savior. Some claimed that the vernal equinox at His birth was really in the sign Pisces, the Fishes, and that the symbol of our Savior should have been a fish. It is in memory of that dispute that the bishop's miter still takes the form of the head of a fish

THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE

THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE

Ever since mankind, the prodigal spirit sons of our Father in Heaven,
wandered into the wilderness of the world and fed upon the husks of its
pleasures, which starve the body, there has been within man's heart a sound-
less voice urging him to return; but most men are so engrossed in material
interests that they hear it not. The Mystic Mason who has heard this inner
voice feels impelled by an inner urge to seek for the Lost Word; to build a
house of God, a temple of the spirit, where he may meet the Father face to
face and answer His call.

Nor is he dependent upon his own resources in this quest, for our Father
in Heaven has Himself prepared a way marked with guide posts which will lead
us to Him if we follow. But as we have forgotten the divine Word and would
be unable now to comprehend its meaning, the Father speaks to us in the language of symbolism, which both hides and reveals the spiritual truths we
must understand before we can come to Him. Just as we give to our children
picture books which reveal to their nascent minds intellectual concepts
which they could not otherwise understand, so also each God-given symbol has
a deep meaning which could not be learned without that symbol.

God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit. It is therefore strictly
forbidden to make a material likeness of Him, for nothing we could make
would convey an adequate idea. But as we hail the flag of our country with
joy and enthusiasm because it awakens in our breasts the tenderest feelings
for home and our loved ones, because it stirs our noblest impulse, because
it is a symbol of all the things which we hold dear, so also do different
divine symbols which have been given to mankind from time to time speak to
that forum of truth which is within our hearts, and awaken our consciousness
to divine ideas entirely beyond words. Therefore symbolism, which has
played an all-important part in our past evolution, is still a prime neces-
sity in our spiritual development; hence the advisability of studying it
with our intellects and our hearts.

It is obvious that our mental attitude today depends on how we thought
yesterday, also that our present condition and circumstances depend on how
we worked or shirked in the past. Every new thought or idea which comes to
us we view in the light of our previous experience, and thus we see that our
present and future are determined by our previous living. Similarly the path of spiritual endeavor which we have hewn out for ourselves in past ex-
istences determines our present attitude and the way we must go to attain
our aspirations. Therefore we can gain no true perspective of our future
development unless we first familiarize ourselves with the past.

It is in recognition of this fact that modern Masonry harks back to the
temple of Solomon. That is very well as far as it goes, but in order to
gain the fullest perspective we must also take into consideration the an-
cient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We must
understand the relative importance of that Tabernacle, also of the first and
second temples, for there were vital differences between them, each fraught
with cosmic significance; and within them all was the foreshadowing of the
CROSS, sprinkled with BLOOD, which was turned to ROSES.

CASTING THE MOLTEN SEA

CASTING THE MOLTEN SEA
As the spiritual gifts of the SONS OF SETH flowered in Solomon, the wisest of men, and enabled him to conceive and design a marvelous temple, according to the plan of his creator, Jehovah, so Hiram, the clever craftsman, embodied within himself the consummate skill of a long line of ancestral artificers. He possessed the concentrated quintessence of the material knowledge gained by the SONS OF CAIN, while they wrought from the wilderness of the world a concrete civilization; and in the execution of the wonderful Temple of Solomon this superlative skill found full fruition.

Thus this glorious edifice was the chef d'oeurve of both lines, an embodiment of the sublime spirituality of the CHURCHMEN, the SONS OF SETH, combined with the superlative skill of THE CRAFTSMEN, THE SONS OF CAIN. So far, the honors were even, the achievement equal. Solomon was contented; he had carried out the design transmitted to him, he had a place of worship worthy of the Lord he revered; but the soul of Hiram was not satisfied. Armed with the art of ages, he had constructed an incomparable masterpiece in architecture. BUT THE DESIGN HAD NOT BEEN HIS OWN; he had been merely the tool of an unseen architect, Jehovah, working through an intermediary Solomon. This rankled in his heart, for it was as necessary for him to originate as to breathe.

In that ancient age when Cain and Abel first found themselves upon earth, Abel contentedly cared for the flocks CREATED like himself and his parents, Adam and Eve, by Jehovah; but in Cain, semi-divine progeny of the Lucifer Spirit, Samael, and Eve, the creature of Jehovah, divine incentive to ORIGINAL EFFORT burned; he tilled the field and made two blades of grass grow where one grew before; the creative instinct must have expression.

Hiram, being the focus of and having inherited all the CRAFTS OF CAIN, was also invested with the Spirit of Samael intensified in commensurate ratio; therefore he was consumed by an overpowering urge to add something to the Temple that would eclipse the rest of the structure in beauty and importance. Out of the travail of his spirit was born the conception of THE MOLTEN SEA, and this great ideal he proceeded to carry into execution, though heaven and earth held their breath in awe at the audacity of his purpose.

The Bible gives very little information about the molten sea. In Second Chronicles, the fourth chapter, we learn that Hiram made such a vessel, that it was of considerable size, that it stood upon 12 oxen arranged so that their heads were at the periphery of this circular basin and their hind parts were towards its center. It was intended solely for use by the priests. Much is said of a nature to bewilder the reader, but the above salient points prove the signal importance of this instrument, as we shall see when we study and compare the Masonic account with this veiled word of the Bible. The Masonic story runs as follows:

When Hiram had about completed the Temple, he commenced to cast the various vessels required in the service according to designs made by Solomon as agent of Jehovah. Chief among these was the great laver, intended to hold the bath of purification, through which all priests must pass to enter the service of the Lord. This, and all the lesser vessels were successfully cast by Hiram, as recorded in the Bible. But there is an important distinction between the vessel and the molten sea which it was designed by Hiram to contain, and until that had been successfully poured, the vessel was without virtue, so far as purifying properties were concerned; until then it could no more cleanse the sin-stained soul than could a dry basin be utilized to cleanse the body. Nor could Solomon speak the Word, the formula for this wonderful work. None but Hiram knew it. This work was to be his Masterpiece, and IF HE SUCCEEDED, HIS ART WOULD HAVE LIFTED HIM ABOVE THE HUMAN, and made him divine like the Elohim Jehovah. In the garden of Eden, his divine progenitor Samael, had assured his mother, Eve; that she might become "as the Elohim," if she ate of the tree of knowledge. For ages his ancestors had wrought in the world; through the accumulated skill of the Sons of Cain, an edifice had been reared, wherein Jehovah hid himself "behind the veil" and communed only with his chosen priests, the Sons of Seth. THE SONS OF CAIN WERE THRUST OUT OF THE TEMPLE WHICH THEY HAD BUILT, as their father, Cain, had been driven from the garden which he had tilled. This Hiram felt to be an outrage and an injustice; so he applied himself to prepare the means whereby the Sons of Cain might "rend the veil" and open the way to God for "whosoever will."

To this end he sent messengers over the world to collect all the metals with which the Sons of Cain had ever wrought. With his hammer he pulverized them and placed them in a fiery furnace to extract by alchemistry, from each particle, the quintessence of knowledge derived in the experience of working with it. Thus the combined quintessence of these various BASE METALS would form a SPIRITUAL SUBLIMATE OF KNOWLEDGE incomparable in potency, valuable beyond all earthly things. Being of ultimate purity it would contain no color, but resemble a "sea of glass." Whoever should lave in it would find himself endowed with perpetual youth. No philosopher could compare with him in wisdom; this "white stone" knowledge would even enable him to lift the veil of invisibility and meet the superhuman Hierarchs, who work in the world with a potency undreamt of by the masses.

Masonic traditions tell us that Hiram's preparations were so perfect that success would have been assured, had not treachery triumphed. But the incompetent craftsmen whom Hiram had been unable to initiate into the higher degrees, conspired to pour WATER into the vessel cast to receive the Molten Sea; for they knew that the Son of Fire was unskilled in the manipulation of the watery element, and could not combine it with his wonderful alloy. Thus, by frustrating Hiram's cherished plan and spoiling his Masterpiece, they aimed to revenge themselves upon the Master. Solomon had been privately informed of the nefarious plot, but jealousy on account of the Queen of Sheba bound his tongue and stayed his arm, for he hoped that when the ambitious plan of Hiram failed, the affections of the queen would turn from his humiliated rival to himself. He therefore closed eyes and ears to plot and plotters.

When Hiram confidently PULLED THE PLUGS, the liquid fire rushed out, was met by the water, and there was a roar that seemed to shake heaven and earth, while the elements boiled and battled. All but Hiram hid their faces at the awful havoc; then from the center of the raging fire he heard the call of Tubal Cain, bidding him jump into the Molten Sea. Full of faith in his ancestor, who had gone before him upon the path of fire, Hiram obeyed and plunged fearlessly into the flames. Sinking through the disintegrated bottom of the vessel, he was conducted successfully through NINE-ARCH-LIKE layers of the earth to the Center, where he found himself in the presence of Cain, the founder of his family, who gave him instructions relative to blending Water and Fire, and who furnished him with a NEW HAMMER AND A NEW WORD, which would enable him to produce these results. Cain looked into the future and uttered a prophecy which has been partially fulfilled; what remains is in process of realization day by day, and as surely as time goes on all will come to pass.

"You, Hiram," said Cain, "are destined to die with hopes unfulfilled, but many sons will be born to the widow and keep your memory green through the ages, and at length one will come who is greater than you. You shall not wake till the Lion of Judah raises you with the powerful grip of His paw. This day you have received your BAPTISM OF FIRE, but He shall BAPTIZE YOU WITH WATER AND WITH SPIRIT; you, and every son of the widow, who will come to Him. Greater than Solomon, he will build a new city and a Temple wherein the nations may worship. The Sons of Cain and the Sons of Seth shall there meet in Peace, at the sea of glass. And as Melchisedec, King of Salem (Salem means Peace,) and Priest of God, ministered to Abraham, the father of nations, when mankind was yet in its infancy, so shall this new Light combine in Himself the dual office of King and Priest after the order of Melchisedec. He shall judge the nations with THE LAW OF LOVE and to him that overcometh will be given a White Stone with a name that will serve as passport to the temple. There he may meet the king FACE TO FACE.

Hiram was again conducted to the surface of the earth and as he walked from the scene of his shattered ambition, the conspirators set upon and fatally wounded him; but before he expired, he hid the hammer and disc upon which he had inscribed the Word. This was never found until ages later when Hiram, "the widow's Son," was reborn as Lazarus and became the friend and pupil of the Lion of Judah, who raised him from death through initiation. When the hammer was found it had the shape of a CROSS, and the disc had become a ROSE. Therefore Hiram took his place among the immortals under the new and symbolical name: Christian Rosenkreuz.
He founded the Order of Temple-Builders which bears his name; in that Order aspiring souls are still instructed how to fuse the base metals and make the White Stone.




Max Heindel

The Future: Advancing Masonic Morality in both Natural Philosophy and Geometry, by Bro. Jeff Peace

The Future: Advancing Masonic Morality in both Natural Philosophy and Geometry, by Bro. Jeff Peace

Throughout the past three centuries people have continued to inquire about the meaning of Free-Masonry. Many books have been written on the subject, some to purposefully further obscure its true meaning and others to create meaning where there wasn't any at all. This confusion is due to the fact that in the beginning Free-Masonry was a secret society that concealed what were, at the time, considered dangerous concepts and ideas. Adding to this confusion were the many schisms and internal conflicts that divided the organization and created a maze of competing ideas and philosophies. Today's Free-Masonry is a quagmire of conflicting information that presents a confusing series of ideas to its members, who try desperately to form some type of a rational synthesis of seemingly absurd teachings.

One only need look at the plethora of competing Masonic organizations today to see just how mired the organization has become in the myriad of unrelated philosophical ideas it has acquired over the centuries. Free-Masonry of the 21st century is an organization that has lost its way. The only thing today's Masons can agree to is philanthropy. The concept of a Masonic brotherhood has been torn to pieces by competing factions and ugly internal politics. None of this should come as a surprise. Any organization that has lost its central philosophy — its reason for being — will quickly begin to flounder on the rocks of the high seas of modernity.

The newly established United Grand Lodge of America is a lighthouse of the original Masonic philosophy of the early eighteenth century. These brethren have penetrated the dark fog that has engulfed Free-Masonry and have returned it to the solid foundation of its true roots in the Enlightenment. They are now in the position to advance the Royal Art to levels never before imagined by Masons of any generation. The brotherhood of man under the All-Seeing of Deity was but a dream to the Free-Masons of 1717; it now has the potential to be realized for the first time.

The days of the social Free-Masonry which took root in the 1950’s are numbered. The next generation will inherit nothing from their fathers and grandfathers but empty and decaying buildings. The pseudo-Masonic rituals left to them will be discarded, and then replaced with the true knowledge of Masonic Light. New temples will be erected whose doors will be open to all, regardless of race or religion, and the knowledge that brings peace and harmony will fill every corner with love and Light.

In the beginning Free-Masonry's aims and objectives needed to remain a closely guarded secret revealed only to the few, but those times are now past. What we once held close to our hearts shall now be given freely to all mankind. This knowledge is the rightful inheritance of humanity as a whole; we have been merely its silent keepers over the centuries. The time has come to restore this great gift to its rightful owners.

Free-Masonry's "Geometry" has reached into every corner of the cosmos revealing the true nature of the Great Architect in all of His infiniteness and wholeness. Our "Natural Philosophy" has expanded mankind’s understanding of itself and the world in which we live. It is, however, our "Peculiar System of Morality" that has failed both Masonry and humanity. This is not due to fallacies in the original system as given to us by the patriarchs of our progressive science, but in our failure to maintain and adapt the system to mankind’s ever-growing knowledge of himself and the Universe. The first priority of the next generation of Free-Masons and the United Grand Lodge of America must be the advancement of Masonic Morality in both "Natural Philosophy" and "Geometry." Mankind now stands uneasily at the edge of a precipice and must be given the working tools needed to avoid a catastrophe that could send it spiraling back into the darkness of superstition and fear. No longer can Free-Masons sit silently in their stately halls speculating on the future. The future is here today and our gentle Craft must rise to meet the challenges of generations yet unborn.

Today is the day we must rise up from our slumbers and once again make a difference in the world. The old rules that regulated our conduct must be abandoned and replaced with new ones that better reflect the environment in which Free-Masonry now exists. Masons who live in the past will die with it, but for those who see the necessity for progress and change there is a future filled with hope and service to both the Great Architect and mankind.

Let me finish with a warning to the purveyors of darkness, superstition and tyranny: While your numbers have grown during our fitful slumbers we have not forgotten your treachery or the flames of your pyres. The All-Seeing Eye is ever watching over its children.

— Bro. Jeff Peace, Rite of the Rose Cross of Gold

DOT LINE CIRCLE: An Ancient Symbol?

One interpretation of many for the Symbol of the Dot within a Circle with a Line extending from the Dot to the Circle.
A different Symbol of the Trinity.
Dot=God,Absolute
Line=Spirit,Space
Circle=Man,Physical Universe

Philosophically condidered, the descent of the rational nature of man into its irrational body is involution; the resurrection of the rational nature from this condition of immersion, evolution. The physical universe is the sphere of ignorance where each creature is at its worst in that it has forgotten the best within itself. So thick and numerous are the veils of the rings that the light of spirit is obscure until but a dim haze bears witness of its defulgence.
It naturally follows that the accomplishments in the physical world is the greatest of all accomplishments, for it is under the most difficult of all situations. Here is the key to the story of the prodigal son, who represents the incarnating soul. The pigsty where he must eat and sleep with the hogs represents one ancient patriarch's concept of the physical universe. When at last the prodigal, having repented of his iniquities and having seen the folly of material existence, returned to the house of his Father(the light-world), the fatted calf was killed in his honor, for his accomplishment was great. Jealous of the attention bestowed upon the improvident youth, the elder brother made his disatisfaction known to his Father, who replied that there was ample cause for rejoicing in that the lost had been found and the dead lived again. The story carries the same thought permeating Egyptian philosophy: namely, that life in the mortal sphere without a realization of the Divine Plan is the true death; That resurrection from this state is the most desired of all attainments. Yet to rise victorious from the dark world of hopeless involvement is an accomplishment so noble that it elevates the conquering soul to a dignity exceeding that of the angels who are never confronted with this problem.

The Egyptian Pharaohs carried three scepters symbolic of their authority from the Demiurgus: The Anubis-headed staff, symbolic of the priesthood and the authority of the World Lord over the souls of men; and the flail, symbolic of he mastery which the Demiurgus exercises over the bodies of all creatures.
Returning to the Dot,Line,Circle symbolism, the Anubis-headed staff is symbolized by the dot, the shepherd's crook by the line, and the flail by the circle. These are representative respectively of rulership through wisdom, rulership through faith, and rulership through force. Thus the dot is now termed governemnt. It was once the crown, but now so large a part of government is administered by the people that crown can only be used in its abstract sense. The dot, however, signifies government by the state. The line is the tiara, or government by the church, and the circumference is the people who are the beneficiaries of government. Thus we find three trmendous forces continually focussed upon the objective life of man, and the perversion of these forces constitutes the threefold fountain-head of evil as opposed to threefold fountain-head of light. Through the perversion of government we have ignorance; throught the perversion of the church, superstition; and through the perversion of the people, fear. Thus come into existence the great Masonic trio of evils: ignorance, superstition, and fear, the murderers of human liberty and the detsroyers of the understanding.

I and 3 other brothers from my Lodge attended a Prince Hall Raising of 8 candidates. They send there candidates through as a class. The candidates represented 4 different Lodges that meet in this facility. There are 4 Blue Lodges in our district and share the same fiacilty. A degree team was used to confer the ritual composed of men from the various Lodges. I was fortunate enough to be part of the Fellow Craft Team. I was Amos. Ritually, everything was about the same, but the zeal and side dressings of the opening and closing, was expressed differently. The meetings between HA and the 3 ruffians will leave a lasting impression on those young men as well as myself and brothers. The joy they showed in bringing in new men, whether into their own Lodge or another, you saw real love and affection towards the new master masons. The elders expressed that they(the candidates) should pray together, stay together, and grow together. The idea of closeness between the candidates, and the trials they endured, which could be pretty traumatic after what I witnessed, one could fell it;s importance. The young men were educated together in a class format prior to receiving the degrees. The men I might were all educated in Masonry and practiced it. How any man can still reject a Prince Hall mason today is still baffling. At some point all masons can come together to promote Universal Brotherhood and put aside petty bigoted and possesive ideals! Harmony and equality should rule masonry, not appointed males.

I see that the old way of masonry is rearing its ugly head. I see that one brother from one state is attacking another because of what he has experienced in masonry in his state. How one brother can unassumingly attack another brother who felt he had been wronged. The majority of bright, free thinking young men can feel it in their bones something is amiss in masonry. The spirit is gone. People fighting over recognition and "type" of masonry is childish. Trying to claim "one" form of masonry is correct while anything that competes with the Grand Lodge system is refused recognition and labeled clandestine. People seem to forget how the printing press was attacked by the british in pre revolutionary days. It was considered to spread propaganda. Well the underground printing presses allowed men to communicate their thoughts without being caught and strung up for being disloyal to the crown. The defenders of the Grand Lodge system of masonry are no different than the british of yesteryear. Blogs are the 21st century underground printing presses with maybe the last chance for real change. To try and belittle another brothers experiences with malice and slander and ridicule is nasty and a loyalists trait. remember, just because your title seeking masonic careers have been a smooth, upward journey in your little corner of the world, does not mean something isn't rotten in denmark. And, as long as masons keep there unmasonic behavior in the dark, we will never grow and evolve like masonry is supposed to. never were we to act like this fraternity needs to stay in the 19th century. The ones clinging to the old system have no ther recourse except slander and defamation by belittling a brothers concern and perceptions. Shame on you masons who attack without just cause. Attack without finding all the details. Plus, if the grand lodge system is set upo by appointments to get into grand line, how will change ever come about? The old school boys will only appoint someone who will tow the line. That in itself is un-american and un masonic. Appoint,ents should be outlawed. The best man should be allowed to petition/run for a grand lodge office on his merits not who ass he kissed for 20 years or have to be a senior demolay. Let some outsiders with frsh thoughts and ideas get into positions that could effect change. But no, masonry should ony be in the hands of the deservant!
Hogwash brethren....
Stop the attacks of concerned brothers!
Do not belittle their travels in their states without a full investigation into what the real situation is.

The Nature of the Absolute

Halcyon498

The Nature of the AbsoluteBy Manly P. Hall THE HOMERIC CHAIN The order of the gods of the three worlds, grouped in Chaldean triads, is here set forth according to the doctrines of Orpheus. This mystery was concealed by the first symbolists under the figures of the dot, the line, and the circle. To the mystic, the fables of the ancients are indeed resplendent with unsuspected truths. To define adequately the nature of the Absolute is impossible, for it is everything in its eternal, undivided, and unconditioned state. In ancient writings it is referred to as the NOTHING and the ALL. No mind is capable of visualizing an appropriate symbolic figure of the Absolute. Of all the symbols devised to represent its eternal and unknowable state a clean, blank sheet of paper is the least erroneous. The paper, being blank, represents all that cannot be thought of, all that cannot be seen, all that cannot be felt, and all that cannot be limited by any tangible function of consciousness. The blank paper represents measureless, eternal, unlimited SPACE. No created intelligence has ever plumbed its depths; no God has ever scaled its heights, nor shall mortal or immortal being ever discover the true nature of its substance. From it all things come, to it all things return, but it neither comes nor goes.Figures and symbols are pollutions drawn upon the unblemished surface of the paper. The symbols, therefore, signify the conditions that exist upon the face of SPACE or, more correctly, which are produced out of the substance of SPACE. The blank sheet, being emblematic of the ALL, each of the diagrams drawn upon it signifies some fractional phase of the ALL. The moment the symbol is drawn upon the paper, the paper loses its perfect and unlimited blankness. As the symbols represent the creative agencies and substances, the philosophers have declared that when the parts of existence come into manifestation the perfect wholeness of Absolute Being is destroyed. In other words, the forms destroy the perfection of the formlessness that preceded them. Symbolism deals with universal forces and agencies. Each of these forces and agencies is an expression of SPACE, because SPACE is the ultimate of substance,the ultimate of force, and the sum of them both. Nothing exists except it exists in SPACE; nothing is made except it is made of SPACE. In Egypt SPACE is called T A T.SPACE is the perfect origin of everything. It is not God; it is not Nature; it is not man; it is not the universe. All these exist in SPACE and are fashioned out of it, but SPACE is supreme. SPACE and Absolute Spirit are one; SPACE and Absolute Matter are one. Therefore SPACE, Spirit, and Matter are one. Spirit is the positive manifestation of SPACE; Matter is the negative manifestation of SPACE. Spirit and Matter exist together in SPACE. SPACE, Spirit, and Matter are the first Trinity, with SPACE the Father, Spirit the Son, and Matter the Holy Ghost. SPACE though actually undivided, becomes through hypothetical division Absolute (or Ultimate) Spirit, Absolute (or Ultimate) Intelligence, and Absolute (or Ultimate) Matter.The most primitive and fundamental of all symbols is the dot. Place a dot in the center of the sheet and what does it signify? Simply the ALL considered as the ONE, or first point. Unable to understand the Absolute, man gathers its incomprehensibility mentally to a focal point--the dot. The dot is the first illusion because it is the first departure from things as they eternally are--the blank sheet of paper. There is nothing immortal but SPACE, nothing eternal but SPACE, nothing without beginning or end but SPACE, nothing unchangeable but SPACE. Everything but SPACE either grows or decays, because everything that grows grows out of SPACE and everything that decays decays into SPACE. SPACE alone remains. Philosophically, SPACE is synonymous with Self (spelled with a capital S), because it is not the inferior, or more familiar, self. It is the Self which man struggles through all eternity to attain. Therefore the true Self is as abstract as the blank sheet of paper and only he who can fathom the nature of the blank paper can discover Self.The dot may be likened to Spirit. The Spirit is Self with the loss of limitlessness, because the dot is bound by certain limitations. The dot is the first illusion of the Self, the first limitation of SPACE even as Spirit is the first limitation of Self. The dot is life localized as a center of power; the blank paper is life unlimited. According to philosophy, the dot must sometime be erased, because nothing but the blank paper is eternal. The dot represents a limitation, for the life that is everywhere becomes the life that is somewhere; universal life becomes individualized life and ceases to recognize its kinship with all Being.After the dot is placed on the paper, it can be rubbed out and the white paper restored to its virgin state. Thus the white paper represents eternity and the dot, time; and when the dot is erased, time is dissolved back into eternity, for time is dependent upon eternity. Therefore in ancient philosophy there are two symbols: the NOTHING and the ONE--the white paper and the dot. Creation traces its origin from the dot--the Primitive Sea, the Egg laid by the White Swan in the fields of SPACE.If existence be viewed from the Self downward into the illusion of creation, the dot is the first or least degree of illusion. On the other hand, if existence be viewed from the lower, or illusionary, universe upward towards Reality, the dot is the greatest conceivable Reality. The least degree of physical impermanence is the greatest degree of spiritual permanence. That which is most divine is least mortal. Thus, in the moral sense, the greatest degree of good is the least degree of evil. The dot, being most proximate to perfection, is the simplest and, therefore, the least imperfect of all symbols.From the dot issues forth a multitude of other illusions ever less permanent. The dot, or Sacred Island, is the beginning of existence, whether that of a universe or a man. The dot is the germ raised upon the surface of infinite duration. The potentialities signified by the blank paper are manifested as active potencies through the dot. Thus the limitless Absolute is manifested in a limited way.When considering his own divine nature, man always thinks of his spirit as the first and greatest part of himself. He feels that his spirit is his real and permanent part. To the ancients, however, the individualized spirit (to which is applied the term I) was itself a little germ floating upon the surface of Absolute Life. This idea is beautifully brought out in the teachings of the Brahmins, Buddhists, and Vedantists. The Nirvana of atheistic Buddhism is achieved through the reabsorption of the individualized self into the Universal Self. In Sir Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia, the thought is summed up thus: “Om, mani padme, hum! The daybreak comes and the dewdrop slips back into the shining sea.” The “dewdrop” is the dot; the “sea” the blank paper. The “dewdrop” is the individualized spirit, or I; the blank paper that Self which is ALL, and at the achievement of Nirvana the lesser mingles with the greater. Immortality is achieved, for that which is impermanent returns to the condition of absolute permanence.The dot, the line, and the circle are the supreme and primary symbols. The dot is Spirit and its symbol in the Chaldaic Hebrew--the Yod--is actually a seed or spermatozoon, a little comma with a twisting tail, representing the germ of the not-self. In its first manifestation the dot elongates to form the line. The line is a string of dots made up of germ lives--the monadic lives of Leibnitz. From the seed growing in the earth comes the sprig--the line. The line, therefore, is the symbol of the dot in growth or motion. The sun is a great dot, a monad of life, and each of its rays a line--its own active principle in manifestation. The key thought is: The line is the motion of the dot.In the process of creation all motion is away from self. Therefore there is only one direction in which the dot can move. In the process of return to the perfect state all motion is toward self, and through self to the Universal Self. Involution is activity outward from self; evolution is activity inward toward self. Motion away from self brings a decrease in consciousness and power. The farther the light ray travels from its source the weaker the ray. The line is the outpouring or natural impulse of life to expand. It may seem difficult at first to imagine the line as a symbol of general expansion, but it is simply emblematic of motion away from self--the dot. The dot, moving away from self, projects the line; the line becomes the radius of an imaginary circle, and this circle is the circumference of the powers of the central dot. Hypothetically, every sun has a periphery where its rays end, every human life a periphery where its influence ceases, every human mind a periphery beyond which it cannot function, every human heart a periphery beyond which it cannot feel. Somewhere there is a limit to the scope of awareness. The circle is the symbol of this limit. It is the symbol of the vanishing point of central energy. The dot symbolizes the cause; the line, the means; and the circle, the end.The AIN SOPH of the Hebrew Qabbalists is equivalent to the Absolute. The Jewish mystics employed the closed eye to suggest the same symbolism as that of the blank sheet of paper. The inscrutable NOTHING conveyed to the mind by the closing of the eyes suggests the eternal, unknowable, and indefinable nature of Perfect Being. These same Qabbalists called spirit the dot, the opened eye, because looking away from itself, the Ego (or I AM) beholds the vast panorama of things which together compose the illusionary sphere. However, when this same objective eye is turned inward to the contemplation of its own cause, it is confronted by a blankness which defies penetration.Only that thing which is permanent is absolutely real; hence, that unmoved, eternal condition so inadequately symbolized by the blank sheet of paper is the only absolute Reality. In comparison to this eternal state, forms are an ever-changing phantasmagoria, not in the sense that forms do not exist but rather they are of minor significance when compared to their ever-enduring source.While through lack of adequate terminology it is necessary to approach a definition of the Absolute from a negative point of view, the blank sheet of paper signifies not emptiness but an utter and incomprehensible fullness when an attempt is made to define the indefinable. Therefore the blank paper represents that SPACE which contains all existence in a potential state. When the material universe--whether the zodiac, the stars, or the multitude of suns dotting the firmament--comes into manifestation, all of its parts are subject to the law of change. Sometime every sun will grow cold, sometime every grain of cosmic dust will blossom forth as a universe and sometime vanish again. With the phenomenal creation comes birth, growth, and decay and the multifarious laws which have dominion over and measure the span of ephemerality. Omar Khayyam, with characteristic Oriental fatalism, writes:“One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.”The illusions of diversity--form, place, and time--are classed by the Orientals under the general term Maya. The word Maya signifies the great sea of shadows--the sphere of things as they seem to be as distinguished from the blank piece of paper which represents the one and only THING as it eternally is. The mothers of the various World Saviors generally bear names derived from the word Maya, as for example, Mary; for the reason that the various redeeming deities signify realization born out of illusion, or wisdom rising triumphant from the tomb of ignorance. Philosophical realization must be born out of the realization of illusion. Consequently the Savior-Gods are born out of Maya and rise through many tribulations into the light of eternity.The keys to all knowledge are contained in the dot, the line, and the circle. The dot is universal consciousness, the line is universal intelligence, and the circle is universal force--the threefold, unknowable Cause of all knowable existence (the three hypostases of Atma). In man the spirit is represented by the dot and conscious activity or intelligence by the line. Conscious activity is the key to intelligence, because consciousness belongs to the sphere of the dot and activity to the sphere of the circle. The center and the circumference are thus blended in the connecting line--conscious activity or intelligence. The circle is the symbol of body and body is the limit of the radius of the activity of mind power pouring out of the substance of consciousness.In ancient philosophy the dot signifies Truth--Reality in whatever form it may take. The line is the motion of the fact and the circle is the symbol of the form or figure established in the inferior or material sphere by these superphysical activities. Take, for example, a blade of grass. Its form is simply the effect of certain active agents upon certain passive substances. The physical blade of grass is really a symbol of a degree of consciousness or a combination of cosmic activities. All forms are but geometric patterns, being the reactions set up in matter by mysterious forces working in the causal spheres. Conscious activity, working upon or brooding over matter, creates form. Matter is not form, because matter (like SPACE, of which it is the negative expression) is universally disseminated but, as is said in the ancient doctrine, the activity of life upon and through its substances curdles (organizes) matter so that it assumes certain definite forms or bodies. These organisms thus caused by bringing the elements of matter into intelligent and definite relationships are held together by the conscious agent manipulating them. The moment this agent is withdrawn the process of disintegration sets in. Disintegration is the inevitable process of returning artificial compounds to their first simple state. Disintegration may be further defined as the urge of heterogeneous parts to return to their primitive homogeneity; in other words, the desire of creation to return to SPACE. When the forms have been reabsorbed into the vast sea of matter, they are then ready to be picked up by some other phase of the Creative Agencies and molded afresh into vehicles for the material expression of divine potentialities.In its application to the divisions of human learning, the dot is the proper symbol of philosophy in that philosophy is the least degree of intellectual illusion. It is not to be inferred that philosophy is absolute truth but rather that it is the least degree of mental error, since all other forms of learning contain a greater percentage of fallacy. Nothing that is sufficiently tangible to be susceptible of accurate definition is true in the absolute sense; but philosophy, transcending the limitations of the form world, achieves more in its investigation of the nature of Being than does any other man-conceived discipline. A slight digression. The more complex the form, the farther removed it is from its source. As more marks are placed upon the white sheet of paper a picture is gradually created which may become so complicated that the white paper itself is entirely obscured. Thus the more diversified the creations, the less the Creator is discernible. Taking up the least possible space upon the paper, the dot detracts the least from the perfect expanse of the white sheet.Philosophy per se is the least confusing method of approaching Reality. When less accurate systems are employed a cobweb of contending and confusing complexities is spread over the entire surface of the blank paper, hopelessly entangling the thinker in the maze of illusion. As the dot cannot retire behind itself to explore the nature of the paper upon which it is placed, so no philosophy can entirely free itself from the involvements of mind. As man, however, must have some code by which to live, some system of thought which will give him at least an intellectual concept of ultimates, the wisest of all ages have contributed the fruitage of their transcendent genius to this great human need. Thus philosophy came into being.Like the dot, philosophy is an immovable body. Its essential nature never changes. When the element of change is introduced into philosophy, it descends to the level of theology or rather it is involved and distorted by the disciplines of theology. Theology is a motion, a mystical gesture as it were--it is the dot moving away from itself to form the line. Theology is not a fixed element like philosophy; it is an emotional element subject to numberless vicissitudes. Theology is emotional, changeable, violent, and at periodic intervals bursts forth in many forms of irrational excess. Theology occupies a middle ground between materiality and true illumined spirituality which, transcending religion, becomes a comprehension in part at least of divine concerns.As has already been suggested, the line is the radius of an imaginary circle, and when this circle is traced upon the paper we have the proper symbol of science. Science occupies the circumference of the sphere of self. The savant gropes in that twilight where life is lost in form. He is therefore unfitted to cope with any phase of life or knowledge which transcends the plane of material things. The scientist has no comprehension of an activity independent of and dissociated from matter, hence his sphere of usefulness is limited to the lower world and its phenomena. The physical body of what men call knowledge is science; the emotional body, theology; and the mental and supermental bodies, natural and mystical philosophy respectively. The human mind ascends sequentially from science through theology to philosophy, as in ancient days it descended from divine philosophy through spiritual theology to the condition of material science it now occupies.Consider the great number of people who are now leaving the church at the behest of science. Most of these individuals declare their reason for dissenting to the dictates of theology is that the dogma of the church has proved to be philosophically and scientifically unsound. The belief is quite prevalent that nearly all scientists are agnostics, if not atheists, because they refuse to subscribe to the findings of early theologians. Thus the mind must descend from credulity to absolute incredulity before it is prepared to assume the onus of individual thinking. On the other hand, the scientist who has really entered into the spirit of his labors has found God. Science has revealed to him a super theology. It has discovered the God of the swirling atoms; not a personal Deity but an all-permeating, all-powerful, impersonal Creative Agent akin to the Absolute Being of occult philosophy. Thus the little tin god on his golden throne falls to make way for an infinite Creative Principle which science vaguely senses and which philosophy can reveal in fuller splendor.The primitive symbols now under discussion bring to mind the subject of alphabets. The ancient Alphabet of Wisdom is symbolism and all the figures used in this supreme alphabet are taken out of the dot, the line, and the circle; in other words, are made up of various combinations of these elementary forms. Even the Arabic numerical system and the letters of the English alphabet are compounded from these first three figures. In Oriental mysticism there are certain objects considered particularly appropriate for subjects of meditation. One of the most important of the native drawings is that of a lotus bud carrying in its heart the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, the letter usually made resplendent by gold leaf. This letter as the first of the alphabet is employed to direct the mind of the devotee towards all things which are first, especially Universal Self which is the first of all Being and from which all Nature emerged as the letters are presumed to have come forth from the first of themselves. Thus from one letter issue all letters and from a comparatively small number of letters an infinite diversity of words, these words being the sound symbols which man has employed to designate the diversified genera of the mundane creation. The words were originally designed as sound-names and were so closely related to the objects upon which they were conferred that by an analysis of the word the mythical nature of the object could be determined.St. Irenæus describes the Greek cosmological man bearing upon his body the letters of the Greek alphabet. The sacredness of the letters is also emphasized in the New Testament where Christ is referred to as the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. The letters of the alphabet are those sacred symbols through the combinations of which is created an emblem for every thought, every form, every element, every condition of material existence. Like the very illusional world whose phenomena they catalog, words, however, are slayers of the Real and the more words the less of the nature of Reality remains. In the introduction to The Secret Doctrine, H. P. Blavatsky gives several examples of the ancient symbolic alphabets in which the Mystery teachings are preserved. Writing was originally reserved for the perpetuation of the Ancient Wisdom. Today the Mysteries still have their own language undefiled by involvement in the commercial and prosaic life of the unillumined. The language of the initiates is called the Senzar and consists of certain magical hieroglyphical figures by which the knowing of all lands communicated with each other.In the primordial symbols of the dot, the line, and the circle are also set forth the mysteries of the three worlds. The dot is symbolic of heaven, the line of earth, and the circle of hell--the three spheres of Christian theology. Heaven is represented by the dot because it is the first world or foundation of the universe. In its mystical interpretation, the word heaven signifies a “heaved up” or convoluted area and may be interpreted to mean that which is raised above or elevated to a state of first dignity. In a similar manner, the origin of the word salvation may be traced to saliva, though the kinship of the two words has long been ignored. Thus salvation signifies the process of mixing gross substance with a spiritual fluidic essence which renders it cosmically digestible and assimilable. Heaven is a figure of the superior state or condition of power and consequently is the proper symbol of the supreme part of the Deity out of whose substances (or, more correctly, essences) the lesser universe is composed. Heaven is the plane of the spiritual nature of God, earth the plane of the material nature of God, and hell that part of existence in which the nature of God (or good) is least powerful; it is the outer circumference of Deity. The Scandinavian hel-heim--the land of the dead--is a dark and cold sphere where the fires of life burned so low that it seemed as though they might at any moment flicker out. Thus hell may be defined as the place where the light fails or in which divine intelligence is so diluted by matter as to be incapable of controlling the manifestations of force. In the ancient Greek system of thought Hades, or the underworld, simply signifies the physical worlds. The Greeks conceived the physical universe to be that part of creation in which the light of God is most obscured and darkness not as primordial Reality but rather the absence of divine light. Darkness in this sense represents the privated darkness as distinguished from the darkness of the Absolute which includes the nature of light within its own being.So-called physical life begins at the point where matter dominates and inhibits the manifestations of energy and intelligence. Spirit, so-called, is only one-fifth as active in the physical world as it is in its own plane of unobstructed expression. Therefore the physical plane is simply a sphere in Nature wherein are blended four-fifths of inertia and one-fifth of activity. This does not mean that the inhabitants of this sphere are composed of four-fifths of material substances but rather that the greater part of their spiritual natures can find no medium of expression and, consequently, are latent. Thus the spiritual nature signified by the dot is inclosed or imprisoned within matter signified by the circle, the result being the various ensouled forms evolving through the material sphere.It may be well to summarize in the simple terminology of the Alexandrian Neo-Platonists, to whom the modern world is indebted for nearly all the great fundamentals of philosophy. If you were to turn to the diagram at the beginning of this chapter, you will note three circles in a vertical column and each horizontally trisected and overlapped. The upper circle signifies the power of the dot, the central circle the power of the line, and the lower circle the power of the circumference. Each of these circles contains its own trinity of potencies, which were called by the Chaldeans the Father, the Power, and the Mind. The three circles trisected give nine hypothetical panels or levels which signify the months of the prenatal epoch and also the philosophical epoch as given in the nine degrees of the Eleusinian Mysteries. By this symbolism is revealed much of the sacredness attached to the number 9. By the method of overlapping, however, the 9 is reduced to 7, the latter number constituting the rungs of the Mithraic or philosophic ladder of the gods--the links of the golden chain connecting Absolute Unity above (or within) with Absolute Diversity below (or without).The first trinity (the upper circle) consists of God the Father and the nature of His triple profundity; the second trinity (the middle circle), God the Son in His triple sphere of intellection; the third trinity (the lower circle), God the Holy Spirit, the Formator with His triple formative triad which is the foundation of the world. God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Christian triad, is synonymous with Jehovah, the racial God of the Jews; Shiva, the Destroyer-Creator of the Hindus; and Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld. A study of the form and symbols of Osiris reveals that the lower portion of his body is swathed in mummy wrappings, leaving only his head and shoulders free. In his helmet Osiris wears the plumes of the law and in one hand clasps the three scepters of the underworld--the Anubis-headed staff, the shepherd’s crook, and the flail. As the god of the underworld, Osiris has a body composed of death (the material sphere) and a living head rising out of it into a more permanent sphere. This is Jehovah, the Lord of Form, whose body is a material sphere ruled over by death but who Himself as a living being rises out of the dead not-self which surrounds Him. In India Shiva is often shown with his body a peculiar bluish white color. This is the result of smearing his person with ashes and soot, ashes being the symbol of death. Shiva is not only a destroyer in that he breaks up old forms and orders, but he is a creator in that, having dissolved an organism, he rearranges its parts and thus forms a new creature. As the bull was sacred to Osiris, was offered in sacrifice to Jehovah, and was also a favorite form assumed by the god Jupiter (considered the legend of Europa), so Nandi is the chosen vahan of Shiva. Shiva riding the bull signifies death enthroned upon, supported by, and moving in harmony with law; for the bull is the proper symbol of the immutability of divine procedure.It is now in order to consider the subject of recapitulation. The vision of Ezekiel intimates that creation consists of wheels within wheels, the lesser recapitulating in miniature the activities of the greater. In the diagram under consideration it is evident that by trisecting each of the smaller worlds or circles they are capable of division according to the same principle that holds good in connection with the three major circles. Thus as the first large circle itself is synonymous with the dot, so the upper panel of each of the trisected circles is also symbolic of the dot. Hence the upper panel of each circle is its spiritual part, the center panel its intellective or mediatory part, and the lower panel its material or inferior part. The entire lower circle ruled over by Zeus was designated by the Greeks the world, because it was wholly concerned with the establishment and generations of substances. The upper panel of the inferior world, partaking of the same analogy as the first world or upper circle (which it recapitulates in part) is termed the spirit of the world. The central panel, likewise recapitulating the central circle, becomes the mind or soul of the world, and the lower panel, recapitulating the lower circle, the body or form of the world. Thus spirit consists of a trinity of spirit, mind, and body in a spiritual state; mind of a spirit, mind, and body in a mental state; and form or body of a spirit, mind, and body in a material state. While Zeus is the God of Form he manifests as a trinity, his spiritual nature bearing the name Zeus. The intellective nature, soul or mediatory nature of Zeus is termed Poseidon and his lowest or objective material manifestation, Hades. As each of the Hindu gods possessed a Sakti (or a feminine counterpart signifying their energies), so Zeus manifests his potentialities through certain attributes. To these attributes were assigned personalities and they became companion gods with him over his world.The Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades triad of the Greeks is the Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto triad of the Romans. Jupiter may be considered synonymous with the spiritual nature of the sun which, according to the ancients, had a threefold nature symbolic of the threefold Creator of the world. The vital energy pouring from the hypothetical sea of subsolar space. In Neptune we have a parallel with the hypothetical ether of science, the super atmospheric air which is the vehicle of solar energy. Pluto becomes the actual gross chemical earth and his abode is presumed to be in dark, subterranean caverns where he sits upon his ancient throne in impenetrable and interminable gloom. The analogy of the dot, the line, and the circle again appears. Jupiter is the dot, Neptune the line, and Pluto the circle. Thus the life body of the sun is Jupiter; the light body of the sun, Neptune; and the fire body of the sun, Pluto ruling his inferno. It should be borne in mind continually that we are not referring to great universal realities but simply to those phases of cosmogony directly concerned with matter, which is the lowest and most impermanent part of creation. Over this inferior world with its form and its formative agents sits Jupiter, lord of death, generator of evil, the Demiurgus and world Formator, who with his twelve Titanic Monads (the Olympic pantheon) builds, preserves, and ultimately annihilates those things which he fashions in the outer sea of divine privation.It is noteworthy that the astronomical symbol of the sun should be the dot in a circle; for as can be deduced from the subject matter of this lecture, the dot, the circle and the hypothetical connecting line give a complete key to the actual nature of the solar orb. When Jupiter or Jehovah is called the lord of the sun, it does not necessarily mean the sun which is the ruler of this solar system; it means any one of the millions of universal suns which are functioning upon the plane or level of a solar orb. Jupiter manifests himself as a mystical energy which gives crops, perpetuates life, and bestows all the blessings of physical existence only to ultimately deprive mankind and his world of all these bounties. Jupiter is the sun of illusion, the light which lights the inferior creation but has nothing in common with that great spiritual light which is the life of man and the light of the world.According to the Gnostics, the Demiurgus and his angels represented the false light which lured souls to their destruction by causing them to believe in the permanence of matter and that life within the veil of tears was the true existence. According to philosophy, only those who rise above the light of the inferior universe to that great and glorious spiritual luminance belonging to the superphysical spheres can hope to discover everlasting life. The physical universe is therefore the body of Jupiter, Jehovah, Osiris, or Shiva. The sun is the pulsating heart of each of these deities and sun spots are caused (as H. P. Blavatsky notes) by the expansion and contraction of the solar heart at intervals of eleven years. In the Greek and Roman mythologies, Zeus or Jupiter is the chief of the twelve gods of Olympus. Olympus was a mythical mountain rising in the midst of the world. It is the dot or sun itself, for it is written that the tabernacle of the gods is in the skies. From the face of this sun shines a golden corona whose numberless fiery points are the countless gods who transmit the life of their sovereign lord and who are his ministers to the farthest corners of his empire. In the Hebrew philosophy, the rays of the sun are the hairs of the head and beard of the Great Face. Each hair is the radius of a mystical circle with the sun as the center and outer darkness as the circumference. It is curious that in Egypt the name of the second person of the triad--the manifester--should be Ray or Ra and his title, “the lord of light.” Ra bears witness, however, to his invisible and eternal Father, for the light of the sun is not the true sun but bears witness to the invisible source of the effulgency. Thus as the beams of the physical sun become the light of the physical body of existence, so the rays of the intellectual sun are the light of the mind; and all power, all vitality, and all increase come as the result of attunement to the fiery streamers of those divine beings to whom has been given the appellation of “the gods.”A few words at this time concerning the symbolism of Neptune. While Neptune is popularly associated with the sea, he occultly signifies the albuminous part of the great egg of Jupiter. In certain schools of Orphic mysticism, the inferior universe (like the supreme, all-inclosing sphere) is symbolized by an egg. This lesser egg has Jupiter for a yolk, Neptune for the albumen, and Pluto for the shell. It is therefore evident that Neptune is not associated with the physical element of water but rather with the electrical fluids permeating the entire solar system. He is also associated with the astral world, a sphere of fluidic essences and part of the mirror of Maya, the illusion. As the connective between Jupiter and Pluto, Neptune represents a certain phase of material intellect which, like the element of water, is very changeable and inconstant. Like water, Neptune is recognized as a vitalizer and life-giver and in the ancient Mysteries was associated with the germinal agents. The fish, or spermatozoon, previous to its period of germination, was under his dominion.Descending from the sphere of cosmology to the life of the individual, it is important that certain analogies be made between Jupiter as the lord of the world and the microcosmic Jupiter who is the lord of each individual life. That which in our own nature we call I is, according to mysticism, not the real I or Self but the Jupiterian or inferior I--the demiurgic self; it may even be said to be the false self which, by accepting as real, we elevate to a position greater than it is capable of occupying. A very good name for Jupiter is the human spirit as differentiated from the divine spirit which belongs to the supermaterial spheres. In man Jupiter has his abiding place in the human heart, while Neptune dwells in the brain, and Pluto in the generative system. Thus is established the formative triad in the physical nature of man. As the physical universe is the lowest and least permanent part of existence, so the physical body is the lowest and least permanent part of man. Above the lord of the body with his Æons or angels is the divine mind and all-pervading consciousness. The body of man is mortal, though his divine parts partake to a certain degree of immortality. Over the mortal nature of man rules an incarnating ego which organizes matter into bodies and by this organization foredooms them to be redistributed to the primordial elements. As Jupiter had his palace on the summit of Mount Olympus, so from his glorious cardiac throne on the top of the diaphragm muscle he rules the body as lord of the human world. Jupiter in us is the thing we have accepted as our true Self, but meditation upon the subject matter of this lecture will disclose the true relationship between the human self and the Universal ALL of which it is a fragmentary yet all-potential part.Recognizing Jupiter to be the lord of the world, or the incarnating ego which invests itself in universal matter, it then becomes evident that the two higher spheres of trinities of divine powers constitute the Hermetic anthropos, or non-incarnating overman. This majestic and superior part, consisting of the threefold darkness of Absolute Cause and the threefold light or celestial splendor, hovers over the third triad consisting of the threefold world form, or triune cosmic activity. The highest expression of matter is mind, which occupies the middle distance between activity on the one hand and inertia on the other. The mind of man is hypothetically considered to consist of two parts: the lower mind, which is linked to the demiurgic sphere of Jupiter, and the higher mind, which ascends towards and is akin to the substance of the divine power of Kronos. These two phases of mind are the mortal and immortal minds of Eastern philosophy. Mortal mind is hopelessly involved in the illusions of sense and substance but immortal, or divine, mind, transcending these unrealities, is one with truth and light. Here we have a definite key to several misunderstood concepts as now promulgated through the doctrines of Christian Science.Since intelligence is the highest manifestation of matter, it is logically the lowest manifestation of consciousness, or spirit, and Jupiter (or the personal I) is enshrined in the substances of mortal mind where he controls his world through what man is pleased to term intellect. The Jupiterian intellect, however, is that which sees outward or towards the illusions of manifested existence, whereas the higher, or spiritual, mind (which is latent in most individuals) is that superior faculty which is capable of thinking inward or towards profundities of Self; in other words, is capable of facing towards and gazing upon the substance of Reality. Thus the mind may be likened to the two-faced Roman god Janus. With one face this god gazes outward upon the world and with the other inward towards the sanctuary in which it is enshrined. The two-faced mind is an excellent subject for meditation. The objective, or mortal, mind continually emphasizes to the individual the paramount importance of physical phenomena; the subjective, or immortal, mind if given opportunity for expression combats this material instinct by intensifying the regard for that which transcends the limitations of the physical perceptions.Subservient to Jupiter who, bearing his thunderbolt and accompanied by his royal eagle, is indeed the king of this world, are Neptune and Pluto. The god Neptune, of course, is not to be regarded either as the planet or as an influence derived from the planet, but as the lord of the middle sphere of the inferior world. In man the middle sphere between mind and matter is occupied by emotion or feeling. The instability of human emotion is well symbolized by the element of water which is continually in motion and whose peaceful surface can be transformed into a destroying fury by forces moving above its broad expanse. This emotional nature of man is closely associated with the astral light or magical sphere of the ancient and mediæval magicians. In this plane illusion is particularly powerful. As one writer has wisely observed, “It is a land of beauty, a garden of flowers but a serpent is entwined about the stem of each.” Among the Oriental mystics this sphere of the astral light is considered particularly dangerous, for those who are aspiring to an understanding of spiritual mysteries are often enmeshed in this garden of Kundry and, believing that they have found the truth, are carried to their destruction by the flow of this astral fluid.Riding in his chariot drawn by sea-horses and surrounded by nereids riding upon sporting dolphins, Neptune carries in his hand the trident, a symbol common to both the lord of illusion and the red-robed tempter. Neptune is the lord of dreams and all mortal creatures are dreamers; all that mankind has accomplished in the countless ages of its struggle upward towards the light is the result of dreaming. Yet if dreams are not backed up by action and controlled by reason they become a snare and a delusion, and the dreamer drifts onward into oblivion in a mystic ecstasy. You will remember that according to Greek mythology there was a river called the Styx which divided the sphere of the living from that of the dead. This river is the mysterious sea of Neptune which all men must cross if they would rise from material ignorance into philosophic illumination. This Neptunian sea may be likened to the ethers which permeate and bind together the material elements of Nature. The sphere of Neptune is a world of ever-moving fantasy without beginning and without end, a mystical maze through which souls wander for uncounted ages if once caught in the substances of this shadowy dreamland.The lowest division of the Jupiterian sphere is under the dominion of Pluto, the regent of death. Pluto is the personification of the mass physical attitude of all things towards objective life. Pluto may be termed the principle of the mortal code, in accordance with which Nature lives and moves and has her being. Pluto may also be likened to an intangible atmosphere, permeated with definite terrestrial instincts. Unconsciously inhaling this atmosphere, men are enthused by it and accept it as the basis of living. Those creatures who are controlled by the Plutonic miasma contract a peculiar mental and spiritual malaria which destroys all transcendental instinct and spiritual initiative, leaving the individual a psychical invalid already two-thirds a victim of the Plutonic plague. As Plato so admirably says, “The body is the sepulcher of the soul,” and whereas Neptune is symbolic of the astral or elemental soul (which is a mysterious emanation from elementary Nature) Pluto is the god of the underworld, the deity ruling the spheres of the mysterious circle of being and therefore represents the lowest degree of Jupiterian light which is physical matter. Hades, or the land of the dead, is simply an environment resulting from crystallization. Everything that exists in a crystallized state furnishes the environment of Hades for whatever life is evolving through it. Thus the lower universe is ruled over by three apparently heartless gods--birth, growth, and decay. From their palaces in space these deities hurl the instruments of their wrath upon hapless humanity and elementary Nature. But he who is fortunate enough to escape the thunderbolts of Jove will yet fall beneath the trident of Neptune or be torn to pieces by the dogs of Father Dis (Pluto). The ancient Greeks occasionally employed a centaur to represent man, thus indicating that out of the body of the beast which feels upon its back the lash of outrageous destiny rises a nobler creature possessed of God-given reason, who through sheer force of innate Divinity shall become master of those who seek to bind him to a mediocre end.While on the subject of the dot, the line, and the circle, there is one very simple application of the principle which we insert in order to emphasize the analogies existing through the entire structure of human thought. Take a simple problem in grammar. The noun, which is the subject of the sentence, is analogous to the dot; the verb, which is the action of the subject, is analogous to the line; and the object, which is the thing acted upon, is analogous to the circle. These analogies may also be traced through music and color and through the progression of chemical elements. Always the trinity of the dot, the line, and the circle has some correspondent, for it is the basis upon which the entire structure of existence and function--both universal and individual--has been raised. Consider this fundamental symbolism, philosophize upon it, dream about it, for an understanding of these symbols is the beginning of wisdom. There is no problem whether involved with the simple mechanism of an earthworm or the inconceivably complex mechanism of a universe that has not been constructed upon the triangular foundation of the dot, the line, and the circle. These are the proper symbols of the creative, preservative, and disintegrative agencies which manifest the incomprehensible Absolute before temporary creation.The three worlds we have outlined are the supreme, the superior, and the inferior worlds of the Orphic theology as revealed by Pythagoras and Plato. The supreme world is the sphere of the one indivisible and ever-enduring Father; the superior world is the sphere of the gods, the progeny of the Father; and the inferior world is the sphere of mortal creatures who are the progeny of the gods. “Therefore,” says Pythagoras, “men live in the inferior world, God in the supreme world, and the men who are gods and the gods who are men, in the intermediate plane.” You will recall that it was said of Pythagoras by his disciples that there were of two-footed creatures three kinds: gods, men, and Pythagoras. It should be inferred that the dot represents the gods, the circle men, and the line connecting them Pythagoras, or the personification of that superhuman wisdom which binds Cause and Effect inextricably together and which is the hope of salvation for the lesser. The Deity dwelling in the supreme world and which the Platonists termed the One, was, according to the Scandinavians, All-Father, the sure foundation of being. In India it was Brahma and in Egypt, Ammon. The line always represented the Savior-Gods, they being the eldest sons or firstborn of intangible Deity. The line bears witness of the dot as the light bears witness of the life. All this gives a clue to the statement in the New Testament, “Whoso hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father; for the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son.” In other words, whoso hath seen the line, hath seen the dot; for the dot is in the line and the line is in the dot. In the ancient Jewish rites the line was Michael, the archangel of the sun; in Scandinavia, Balder the Beautiful.It is to the lower world of men that the light (the dot pouring into the line), personified as the Universal Savior, descends to redeem consciousness from the darkness of a living grave (the circumference of the circle). The Mystery God who lifted souls to salvation through his own nature thus represents the line, the divine symbol of the way of achievement; for it is written that none shall come unto the Father save by the Son and none of those creatures dwelling in the circumference can reach the center or dot save by ascending the hypothetical line of the radius. The line is the bridge connecting Cause with Effect. In Immanuel Kant’s philosophy we find the dot designated the noumenon and the circumference the phenomenon; the former the Reality, the latter the unreality. The line (the human mind) must ever be the agency that bridges the void between them.In the Platonic philosophy there are three manners of being: (1) gods, or those most proximate to the Absolute, who dwell within the nature of the dot; (2) men, or those who are most distant from the Absolute, who dwell in the circumference of the circle; (3) the heroes and the demigods, who are suspended between Divinity and humanity and who dwell in the sphere of the line. So, according to philosophy, the line is a ladder up which man ascends to light from his infernal state and down which he descends in his involution. The fall of man is the descent of the ladder from the dot to the circumference; the resurrection or redemption of man is his return from the circumference to the dot. Of such importance are these primary symbols that we have felt it absolutely necessary to devote the introductory lectures of this series to the subject of the dot, the line, and the circle. It should ever be borne in mind that the veneration for symbols is not idolatry, for symbols are formulated to clarify truths which in their abstract form are incomprehensible. Idolatry consists in the inability of the mind to differentiate between the symbol and the abstract principle for which it stands. If this definition be accepted, it can be proved that there are very few truly idolatrous peoples. Philosophically, the literalist is always an idolater. He who worships the letter of the law bows down to wood and stone, but he who comprehends the spirit of the law is a true worshipper before the measureless altar of eternal Nature upon which continually burns the spirit fire of the world.Excerpt from:LECTURES ON ANCIENT PHILOSOPHYAN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDYAND APPLICATION OF RATIONAL PROCEDUREBy MANLY P. HALL1929