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FREEMASONRY: A SCHOOL OF INITIATIONModern Freemasonry aims to build the interior Temple that is the core self of every individual. To do this, symbols are put at the disposition of the adherent, to allow each, by their own study, to create the necessary relationship for their own spiritual growth.Freemasonry is an authentic initiatory society because it transmits a true initiation and conveys through its rituals and symbols, the teaching of the ancient mystery schools of which it is the trustee and heir. Initiation confers a particular spiritual influence, actualized by the rites, whose effectiveness greatly surpasses the interpretation that is given and which finds its vastness in the legitimacy of its affiliation.All authentic Initiatic steps aim at awakening the adherent. The best possible instruction cannot give Knowledge because the awakening cannot be provoked except by a systematic introspection which must be supported by the knowledge of deep seated psychic mechanisms. The object of initiation is to guide the individual towards this Knowledge by an interior illumination , projection and understanding of the human *I* at whose center is the transcendent Light. The initiatic method is an essentially intuitive path and that is why Freemasonry uses symbols to provoke this enlightenment as these symbols speak the language of the unconscious.Initiation by itself does not bestow the Light but it puts the subtle bodies in harmony and opens the interior organs of perception, leading one to the path of knowledge and a reintegration with a higher state. It provides one access to the Divine within. It is the search for the Lost Word.This step implies three conditions:1) The quality of the inherent possibilities of the individual's own nature which is the Prima Materia on which the work must be carried out.2) The imparting of the spiritual influx that allows one to be part of a traditional organization that encourages the development of one's potential.3) The inner work which leads one to pass through the initiatic hierarchy in order to guide oneself towards deliverance or the highest identity.The initiation transmitted throughout Freemasonry is a kind of spiritual alchemy, having as its goal a real transformation of the individual, a personal blossoming, and a personal realization.
FREEMASONRY'S PRICELESS HERITAGE
FREEMASONRY'S PRICELESS HERITAGE
The sanctum sanctorum of Freemasonry is ornamented with the gnostic jewels of a thousand ages; its rituals ring with the divinely inspired words of seers and sages. A hundred religious have brought their gifts of wisdom to its altar; arts and sciences unnumbered have contributed to its symbolism. Freemasonry is a world-wide university, teaching the liberal arts and sciences of the soul to all who will hearken to its words. Its chairs are seats of learning and its pillars uphold an arch of universal education. Its trestleboards are inscribed with the eternal verities of all ages and upon those who comprehend its sacred depths has dawned the realization that within the Freemasonic Mysteries lie hidden the long-lost arcana sought by all peoples since the genesis of human reason.
The philosophic power of Freemasonry lies in its symbols ,its priceless heritage from the Mystery schools of antiquity. In a letter to Robert Freke Gould, Albert Pike writes:
"It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something more imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me like the Pyramids in their loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the enlightenment of coming generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians, so long lost to the world; like the Sphynx half buried in the desert. In its symbolism, which and its spirit of brotherhood are its essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world's living religions. It has the symbols and doctrines which, older than himself, Zarathustra inculcated; and ii seemed to me a spectacle sublime, yet pitiful--the ancient Faith of our ancestors holding out to the world its symbols once so eloquent, and mutely and in vain asking for an interpreter. And so I came at last to see that the true greatness and majesty of Freemasonry consist in its proprietorship of these and its other symbols; and that its symbolism is its soul."
Though the temples of Thebes and Karnak be now but majestic heaps of broken and time-battered stone, the spirit: of Egyptian philosophy still marches triumphant through the centuries. Though the rock-hewn sanctuaries of the ancient Brahmins be now deserted and their carvings crumbled into dust, still the wisdom of the Vedas endures. Though the oracles be silenced and the House of the Mysteries be now but rows of ghostly columns, still shines the spiritual glory of Hellas with luster undiminished. Though Zoroaster, Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle are now but dim memories in a world once rocked by the transcendency of their intellectual genius, still in the mystic temple of Freemasonry these god-men live again in their words and symbols; and the candidate, passing through the initiations, feels himself face to face with these illumined hierophants of days long past.
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