The Ancient Root of the Spirit of Freemasonry

[6] How much of the actual budget of any Canadian provincial Grand Lodge goes to ‘value adding activities’ with respect to: education and facilities renovation (to contemporise our Lodges and library facilities); Book, periodical purchase and subscription; communication and relations; products (lapel pin, CD & videotape sale and rental, papers), service generation (book ordering and sales, speakers- both Masonic and non-Masonic authors and essayists, presenters); or archival enhancement (protecting our past).   Instead Grand Lodges and Lodges typically spend time and energy externally, on charitable efforts to the expense of their own internal facilities improvement and services.  We are active on the ‘outside’ but are dying on the ‘inside,’ what are the long term strategic implications of this mode of operation?    

[7] No doubt in part to a North American service club mentality pervasive within the Noble Shrine whose recent impatience with Freemasonry (not providing the numbers) may well result in a split from the Craft.  The Shrine also seems bent on numbers to generate revenue for their hospitals that seems more important than being a tributary of the Craft.  

[8] Gnosis- The goal of Gnostic spirituality is Gnosis or Knowledge of Truth.  The word ‘Gnostic’ or ‘Knower’ was used in different languages, cultures and individuals who have realized Gnosis or achieved enlightenment and are often referred to as Knowers: Gnostikoi (Pagan/Christian), Arifs (Muslim), Gnanis (Hindu), or Buddhas (Buddhist).

Gnostics interpreted stories and teachings of their spiritual tradition as signposts beyond words altogether to the mystical experience of the ineffable mystery as opposed to literalists who believed that their scriptures were actually the words of God and take the moral teachings and initiation myths as factual history.  Gnostics saw themselves as being on a spiritual journey of personal transformation as opposed to literalists who saw themselves as fulfilling a divine obligation to practice particular religious custom as part of their national or cultural identity.  Gnostics wished to free themselves from the limitations of their personal and cultural identity and experience the oneness of things.

[9] “Pagan was originally a derogatory term meaning country dweller, used by Christians to imply that the spirituality of the ancients was some primitive rural superstition.  But this was not true.  Paganism was the spirituality which inspired the unequalled magnificence of the Giza pyramids, the exquisite architecture of the Parthenon, the legendary sculptures of Phideas, the powerful plays of Euripides and Sophocles, and the sublime philosophy of Socrates and Plato.  Pagan civilization built vast libraries to house hundreds of thousands of works of literary and scientific genius.  It’s natural philosophers speculated that human beings had evolved from animals.  Its astronomers knew the earth was a sphere, which, along with the planets, revolves around the sun. They had even estimated its circumference to within one degree of accuracy.  The ancient Pagan world sustained a population not matched again in Europe until the eighteenth century.  In Greece, Pagan culture gave birth to the concepts of democracy, rational philosophy, public theatres, theatre and the Olympic Games, creating a blueprint for the modern world.  What was the spirituality that inspired these momentous cultural achievements? 

 Most people associate Paganism with either rustic witchcraft or the myths of the gods of Olympus as recorded by Hesiod and Homer.  Pagan spirituality did indeed embrace both.  The country people practised their traditional shamanic nature worship to maintain the fertility of the land and the city authorities propped up formal state religions, such as the worship of the Olympian gods, to maintain the power of the status quo.

It was, however, a third, more mystical, expression of the Pagan spirit that inspired the great minds of the ancient world.  The thinkers, artists, and innovators of antiquity were initiates of various religions known as the Mysteries.  These remarkable men and women held the Mysteries to be the heart and soul of their culture.  The Greek historian Zosimos writes that without the Mysteries “life for the Greeks would be unliveable” for the “sacred Mysteries hold the whole human race together.”  The eminent Roman statesman Cicero enthuses: “These Mysteries have brought us from rustic savagery to a cultivated and refined civilization.  The rites of the Mysteries are called ‘initiations’ and in truth we have learned from them the first principles of life.  We have gained the understanding not only to live happily [sounds strikingly similar to Freemasonic doctrine] but also to die with better hope.”  The Jesus Mysteries, pp.15-16.   

[10]Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, by Albert Pike, pp. 355   

[11]Metamorphoses translated by Michael Baigent.   

[12] “The key to understanding the myth of resurrection, both in the Mysteries and the story of Jesus, is that mystically death is rebirth.  Plutarch tells us that sharing in the passion of Dionysus was intended to bring about a palingenesis, or ‘rebirth’.  Initiates of the Mysteries underwent what Lucius Apuleius calls a “voluntary death” from which they emerged “spiritually reborn.” Just as Jesus offers his followers the opportunity to be ‘born again’, Osiris is “ He who giveth unto men and women a second time” and “He who maketh mortals to be born again.” From The Jesus Mysteries, pp.59    

[13]The Mysteries by Michael Baigent, Freemasonry Today, Issue 8, Spring 1999, pp.34-35.   

[14]The Builder, pages 240-241, August 1927   

[15] More About The Compagnonnage by C.N. Batham, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum Vol.19,

    pages 242-246.

[16] According to much new biblical research Christianity itself was a ‘mystery cult’ that evolved into institutionalized state religion based upon literal interpretation’s of ancient myths (the virgin birth, the dying and resurrecting god man) rather than a mode of philosophical inquiry into the meaning of self, nature and God.  For more reading seeing the bibliography and suggested reading list (I would highly recommend The Gnostic Gospels by Prof. Elaine Pagels).   

[17] Esoteric- based on ‘Eso’ meaning ‘inside.’   

[18] The Christian sentiment of brotherly love was also a feature of the ancient Mysteries six centuries before there were any Christians.  Initiates at Eleusis were called adelphoi meaning brothers.  A philadelphian was someone who practised “brotherly love.” The followers of Mithras were called brothers.  Adherents to the Mysteries of Jupiter Dolichenus were fratres carisimmi, or “most loving brothers” The Jesus Mysteries pp.67. 

[19] The ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (c. 2300 BC) speak of the ‘Followers of Horus’ (Shemsu Hor) or those who follow the path of Horus, also called the solar way, or paths to Ra.  They were ‘mystery teachers of heaven’ who founded the sacred learning centre of Heliopolis, who could transmit their knowledge to others and whose function it was to serve as “king-makers.”  The Pyramid Texts tell the initiate: “The Followers of Horus will cleanse you, they will recite for you the spell of Him who Ascends.” 

[20] Philo (20 BCE-40 CE) a respected Jewish leader and famous Jewish philosopher.  Devoted to his own native Judaism he was also Hellenized and ’obsessed with Pagan philosophy.’  Among the ancients he revered Pythagoras and his follower Plato whom he called “the great” and “the most sacred.”  The Christian philosopher Clement of Alexandria refers to Philo as “the Pythagoras.” Like all followers of Pythagoras Philo was well-versed in music, geometry and astrology as well as Greek literature from every age.  As well, like all Pythagoreans he was immersed in the mysticism of the Pagan Mysteries.

    “Philo uses what he calls ‘the method of the mysteries’ to reveal Jewish scriptures as allegories encoding secret spiritual teachings.  He interprets the ’historical’ story of Moses and the Exodus as a mystical metaphor for the path that leads through this world to God.”

   “Philo did not only adopt the philosophy of the Mysteries, but claimed to be an initiate himself– but not of the Pagan Mysteries, however.  He encouraged Jews not to participate in Pagan initiations, as they had their own specifically Jewish Mysteries: The Mysteries of Moses!  According to Philo, Moses was the great initiator, a ’hierophant of the ritual and teacher of divine things.’  Philo also calls himself a hierophant and initiator in the Jewish Mysteries.  He writes of ‘teaching initiation to those initiates worthy of the most sacred initiations.’  As in the Pagan Mysteries, his initiates formed a secret mystical sect and were required to be morally pure.   “As in the Pagan Mysteries, they were sworn to never reveal the ‘veritably sacred Mysteries’ to the uninitiated, lest the ignorant should misrepresent what they did not understand and in so doing expose the Mysteries to the ridicule of the vulgar.”  Ibid pp. 182-184.  

[21] Ibid pp. 97-98.

[22] “The Pagan Sages taught that every human being has a lower self called the Eidolon and an immortal higher-self called the Daemon.  The Eidolon is the embodied self, the physical body, and personality.  The Daemon is the spirit, the true self, but as a spirit-guide whose job it is to lead them to their spiritual destination.  Plato teaches, “We should think of the most authoritative part of the soul as a guardian spirit given by God which lifts us to our heavenly home.” Ibid pp. 101. 

[23] Ibid pp. 126.     

[24] In Medieval terms the seven liberal arts and sciences consisted of trivium (grammer, rhetoric, logic) and quadrivium (geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy). 

[25] Clement Salaman’s article The Seven Liberal Arts, in Freemasonry Today, January 2002, Issue 19, pp 40-41.  

[26] In addition I would add that as a former member of the YMCA I observed the earlier symbol of the YMCA (prior to its further iteration with the women’s movement) had represented an inverted equilateral triangle with the Book of John in the centre, upon its points were found stated the words- mind, spirit and body.

[27] Ancient Mystery Cults, by Walter Burket, Harvard University Press, 1987, pp. 69.

[28] Harry Carr, Five Hundred Years of the Craft.

[29] As well Operative Masons building with speculative knowledge sought to inspire people by the building of great edifices.  Throughout the world from one culture to the next architecture integrated with sacred geometry imbedded with astronomical characteristics provided the world with structures that may have served to inspire transcendence.  One may find numerous examples: the Parthenon in Athens or the King’s Chamber of the Giza pyramid whose dimensions reveal the use of the formula phi, to the Kabbalistic ground properties of King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, to the dimensional properties and ratios of William St. Clair’s brilliant Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland and the Notre Dame cathedrals throughout France- the use of sacred geometry is global.    The ultimate goal of the understanding and promulgation of Freemasonry is connected to the symbolic treatment of number with its application in structures or geographical features- for the benefit of uplifting the individual and society.  As an example, modern historians attribute the unprecedented building program of Cambodian King Jayavarman VII (ruled 1181-1219 AD) to megalomania yet his intent may have been more altruistic.  Temple inscriptions tell us that the King was ‘full of deep sympathy for the good of the world’ and that his temples were part of a grand scheme to win the ‘ambrosia of existence’ for ‘all of those who were struggling in the ocean of existence.’  So in fact the temples of Ankor Wat or Ankor Thom may not have been monuments an ego-centric King but rather sacred instruments used to direct the human spirit.  I would submit a similar intent lies with the Great Pyramids of Egypt which may be seen less as great tombs and more as sacred inspirational and initiatory devices.    

[30] MW Bro. Thomas Jackson, Past Grand Master & Grand Secretary of the GL of Pennsylvania and Secretary of the World Masonic Conferences.  He recently visited the Manitoba jurisdiction (Sept, 2000) and impressed upon the brethren of the Manitoba Study Group that “Freemasonry was never designed to be a philanthropy.”