MYSTIC MASONRY

EXOTERIC AND ESOTERIC

The method of treating a subject of vast magnitude necessarily varies with the character, the knowledge and the mental attitude of those to whom the writer addresses himself. To treat fully from all points of view of the Esoteric Craft of Freemasonry would require many volumes, countless references to ancient and modern books, some well-nigh inaccessible to the ordinary student, and a profundity of scholarship far beyond anything that we possess, probably beyond that possessed by any human being now alive: yet the materials exist, their locality is known, and some day, perhaps, they may be compiled. Meantime, however, signs are not wanting that a higher Masonic consciousness is awakening in the Craft. Numbers of the Order are gradually, and here and there, becoming alive to the fact that much more than meets the eye and ear lies beneath the surface of Masonic doctrine and symbols. They reflect that the phenomenal growth of the Craft is scarcely a ccountable for upon the supposition that modern Speculative F reemasonry perpetuates nothing more than the private associations that once existed in connection with the operative builders' trade. Upon a little thought it becomes pretty obvious that our Third Degree and the central legend that forms the climax of the Craft system cannot have, and can never have had, any direct or practical bearing upon, or connection with, the trade of the operative mason. It may be urged that we have our great charity syste m and that the social side of our proceedings is a valuable an d humanising asset. Granted, but other people and other societies are philanthropic and social as well as we; and a secret society is not necessary to promote such ends, which are merely supplemental to the original purpose of the Order. The discernment of such facts as these, then, suggests to us that the Craft has not yet entered into the full heritage of understanding its own system and that side-matters connected with Freemasonry which we have long emphasi sed so strongly, valuable in their own way as th ey are, are not after all the primary and proper work of the Order. The work of the Order, is to initiate into certain secrets and mysteries, and obviously if the Order fails to expound its own secrets and mysteries and thereby confer real initiations as distinguished from passing candidates through certain formal ceremonies, it is not fulfilling its original purpose whatever other incidental good it may be doing.

Now as these facts are the basis upon which this lecture proceeds, let us at the outset make our first point by stating that as the progress in the Craft of every Brother, admitted into its rinks is by gradual, successive stages, in like manner the understanding of the Masonic system is also a matter of gradual development. Thus, if the idea of the Craft, which we shall endeavour to set forth in this Paper, be, as we believe it to be, true and supported by the most abundant authority, then the perverse purp oses to which its primary designs have been put, the debasing of the pure ideal left by the original founders, was not only inevitable but actually essential, a vital part of the scheme. These abuses are "in" Freemasonry, but not "of" Freemasonry, and if it were possible to conceive an Order into which no such imperfections could possibly enter, it might indeed be a glorified assemblage of Adepts, but it would most certainly not be the Masonic Order on earth. The elementary propositions of our subject are easy enough to state and will probably not be disputed by students: viz. that roughly three centuries ago a group of far seeing wise men, called (either contemporaneously or subsequently) members of "The Invisible Society", caused to be grafted on to the Guild and Fellowship of Operative Masonry, a certain system of ethics and some principles of cosmogony or theogony or whatever may be the proper word, such imported teaching being either original or tradition, or collated, but in any case forming a distinc t system; that they founded a school or association for the purpose of promulgating these teachings, giving the broad lines of such association its rules, government, and ceremonies to their immediate and most advanced followers; that these Brethren subsequently elaborated the scheme, which as time went on consolidated and developed into a numerous and powerful organisation, which organisation is in fact represented by the whole body of Freemasonry as we know it today. So much is tolerably simple and gives us a purely human and historical association, not differing much perhaps from a big mutual-improvement society. But when we add to this conception that the Founders of Speculative Freemasonry were Initiates, that the society had an esoteric, as well as an exoteric aspect, are that in this esoteric aspect the Master acknowledged by the Founders has always occultly directed the Society in its progress and does so still, then a perfect whirl of questions assails us. How c an it be proved? Did the first members of the Society think so?

How comes it that the mythology, the symbolism, the very name, and legend of the Master Builder, are borrowed from every imaginable source, Kabbalistic, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic, Buddhist, and Egyptian? If an occult guidance be claimed for the Craft, whence all these corruptions and abuses? and so on; there is no end to such questionings. It is no part of out purpose to answer such questions categorically; it would be useless to attempt it, for a new flig ht would emerge at once; but r ather to indicate what is the true conception of Freemasonry in such a manner as will demonstrate that all these and similar questions are irrelevant, and proceed from ignorance of the fundamental idea involved in the concept of the Masonic Order.

The keynote of the lines we propose to take will be found in the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below". And by way of introduction to what follows in the main part of the Paper, we should add that whether the student takes the Gnostic view, or the pure Buddhistic, or any other great Cosmogony which is available, it is clear that an inner, force or spirits operating through or manifesting itself by means of the matter which is perceptible by the senses, is the true construction and meaning of t he Universe. We may take the imper ceptible force or spirit to be anything we please for the time being, either the final supreme "causa causans"; operating directly or by means of intermediate Aeons, Dhyan Chohans, Elohim, Angels, Creative Spirits, or what you will. Let us but admit that in some way or other there is a substantial real which is the cause of the apparent. As in the Macrocosm so in the microcosm; the Divine spark, call it Spirit, call it if you like Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or by any name you please, is manife st in, imprisoned in, or dwells in, a material body, phenomenal and illusory if you will.

The body, however, whether of the Cosmos or of the individual, is perceptible to the bodily senses of other individuals; it has its limitations, its hereditary qualities, its Karma, which do not affect the spirit or Higher Principles, or Higher Self, save in so far as the latter is bound to its prison house. And because the same law by the Hermetic axiom must pervade all things, every association must have its inner spirit and its outward material form. So the Masonic Order has its inner guiding spirit, and the outward form which, like the form of a man, was born at a definite time with the limitations of heredity, with Karma, all tending to obstruct and delay the union of the visible phenomenal body of Freemasonry with the Substantial Spirit thereof, or what we may perhaps term the finding of the Higher Self. The relation of this Spirit to the spirit of the Cosmos, by whatever name called, and also to the Spirit which animated th e human bodies of the Founders of the Craft, we shall endeavour to show, with a view of indicating that the teachings of our Order are utterly consonant with those of the inspired seers of all ages. For the benefit of Brethren who are not specially familiar with Oriental philosophies and modes of thought, an appendix has been added to this Paper on the "Seven Principles of Man" as understood by the Eastern schools, a conception which has been largely used as an analogy.