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"I have completed a
monument more lasting than brass, and
more sublime than the regal elevation of pyramids, which
neither the wasting shower, the unavailing north wind, nor
an innumerable succession of years, and the flight of
seasons, shall be able to demolish." - HORACE: Ode
XXX.
"Somehow, it seems to me that the spirit of a writer
is in his
books, and if they are not read, it is imprisoned there
like the
body of an old king of Egypt in its sarcophagus." -
ALBERT
PlKE: Official Bulletin IX, p. 22.
I
IT IS WELL known to all students of Masonry that the
degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the
Southern Jurisdiction of the United States are, more or
less,
tinctured with the occult doctrines of Jewish Cabala and
the
Hermetic and Rosicrucian teachings, to say nothing of the
principles of Neo-Platonism and other mystical schools of
philosophy. The Rite ascribes this, to some extent, to its
old
French rituals, but more particularly to the genius of
General
Albert Pike, who was a deep student of the Cabala, and
well
versed in the religious and philosophical systems of the
Orient. The Vedas and the Zend-Avesta were open books to
him, and not the "iron-bound, melancholy volumes of
the
Magi." He was the reviser and transformer of the
obscure
old French rituals, which have come down to us from the
Rite of Perfection and other Continental sources. In many
instances be rewrote them. For all of them he prepared
lectures which are distinguished for deep scholarship and
beauty of expression. Speaking of this "Master of the
Veils,"
Past Grand Commander Moore, 33d, in an eulogy delivered
some years ago at the House of the Temple, Washington,
D. C., said::
It was Albert Pike, the Mason, who, by the divine alchemy
of
the love of his fellow men, transmuted all his mental
possessions into the pure gold of wisdom, poesy,
patriotism,
and law, and embodied them in our Scottish Rite Rituals as
they were revised and spiritualized by him.
This was his Great work - his Magnum Opus - as he called
it. In 1853, six years before be was elected Grand
Commander, he began his work on the Rituals at his home
in Little Rock. We have, in our archives, a letter from
him to
Dr. Albert G. Mackey, the famous Masonic scholar, and
Secretary - General of the Supreme Council, in which he
said clearly, that he was then at work on the Rituals, and
was trying to spiritualize them. And this continued to be
one
of the chief objects in Freemasonry throughout his life.
In his
"address," delivered to the Supreme Council at
its session in
1860, he said that four years before that time, a Ritual
Committee had been appointed; that although he was then
only a thirty-second, he was appointed on it; that the
committee had never met and that he had him self revised
the Rituals from the Fourth to the Thirty-second degree,
and
had printed his work for the benefit of the Supreme
Council
at a cost to himself of $1,200.
The rituals of the Scottish Rite are indeed lasting
monuments to Pike's genius more lasting than brass, and
more sublime than the regal elevation of pyramids. GeneraI
Pike saw in Masonry what many have failed to see. In a
letter to Robert Freke Gould, the celebrated Masonic
historian, January 28, 1888, he said that he had for some
time been collecting the old Hermetic and alchemical
works,
in order to discover what relation their symbols bore to
Freemasonry. He asserted that the Square and Compasses,
the Triangle, the Oblong Square, the Three Grand Masters,
the idea embodied in the Substitute Word, the Double-
Headed Eagle of the Scottish Rite, the Sun, Moon, and
Master of the Lodge were all derived from Hermetic and
Rosicrucian sources. He wrote as follows :
I cannot conceive of anything that could have induced
Ashmole, Mainwaring, and other men of their class to unite
themselves with a lodge of working Masons, except this -
that as the Alchemists, Hermeticists, and Rosicrucians had
no association of [their] own in England or Scotland, they
joined the Masonic lodges in order to meet one another
without being suspected, and I am convinced that it was
the
men who inherited their doctrine who brought their symbols
into Masonry, but kept the Hermetic meanings to
themselves. To these men we owe, I believe, the Master's
degree. The substitute word means "the Creative
Energy
from the Father" - the Demiourgos and Hiram, I think,
was
made the hero, because his name resembled Hermes,
"The
Master of the Lodge"; the Divine Word (the Egyptian
Thoth),
the Mercury of the Alchemists.
I do not think there can be much doubt about this, and I
have written out in full my notions in regard to our
symbolism, making a manuscript book of some 200 pages,
and have deposited it where it will remain safe and
secure;
and believing that I have shown how Masonry became
speculative, having at least satisfied myself, I rest
content.
The manuscript book referred to above, which is the
property of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of
the
United States, is entitled "The Symbolism of the Blue
Degrees of Freemasonry copied and illustrated for the
author by Bro. Edwin B. Macgrotty, 33d, who was an expert
with pen and pencil. The book is bound in full blue
Morocco
and lettered on the back Esoterika. It bears the date,
Washington, D.C., 1888. There are over thirty-eight
Masonic
manuscripts by Albert Pike in the library of the Supreme
Council under lock and key, of course, and highly prized.
Albert Pike's inquiry into the origins of Masonry is most
interesting to the student of occultism, Neoplatonism, the
Cabala, and Rosicrucianism. There is in the possession of
the Supreme Council some interesting correspondence
between General Pike and the heads of Rosicrucian
movement in this country and England.
IT IS INTERESTING to note that Pike was Chief Adept and
Archimagus of the Societas Rosicruciana of America, and
wrote a ritual for the Order. He eventually withdrew from
the
organization, however, presumably for lack of time to give
to
its work. This ritual not long ago came into the
possession of
the library of the Supreme Council. The manuscript is
entitled: Societas Rosicruciana. Rerum publicarum unitarum
Americae. Regulations and Ritual. It is a volume of 114
pages, sixty-three pages of which are in Pike's hand, and
the others In the handwriting of William Morton Ireland,
33d,
at one time Secretary-General of the Supreme Council,
Southern jurisdiction. At the end of the list of
regulations is
the following: "In Supreme College, May 29, 1880. The
foregoing Regulae are adopted, Albert Pike, IX, Chief
Adept
and Archimagus; William Morton Ireland, IX, Magus and
Junior Substitute."
Most of Albert Pike's, manuscripts are in the library of
the
Supreme Council, written with a quill pen. In addition to
translations of the Rig-Veda, General Pike made the
following Oriental studies: "Ancient Faith and
Worship of the
Aryans, as Embodied in the Vedic Hymns," 1872-73;
"Commentaries on the Kabbala," 1873; "Irano-Aryan
Theosophy as Contained in the Zend-Avesta," 1874;
"Lectures on the Arya," 1873, and
"Vocabularies of Sanscrit
Words."
The "Irano-Aryan Theosophy," recently published
by, the
Scottish Rite, under the editorial supervision of Bro.
Marshall W. Wood, 33d, is a work of the highest importance
to scholars. It is issued under the title of Irano-Aryan
Faith
and Doctrine as Contained in the Zend-Avestas, 1924.
ALBERT PIKE, explorer, soldier, jurist, poet, philosopher,
and Freemason, was born in Boston, Mass., December 29,
1809, He received his education in the grammar schools of
Newburyport, Mass.; in an academy at Framingham, Mass.,
and at Harvard University, but he did not graduate from
the
university. He taught school for a while in Massachusetts,
and then went as a pioneer into the Great West. He
eventually settled in Little Rock, Ark., where he
contributed
a series of political articles to the Little Rock
Advocate,
under the nom de plume of "Casca." These papers
attracted
so much attention that he was offered and accepted an
editorial position on the Advocate. In 1833 he was elected
Assistant Secretary of the Council of the Territorial
Legislature of Arkansas, studied law, and was admitted to
the bar in 1834. In 1835 he purchased the Advocate, but
finding the editing and management of the journal
interfered
with his law practice, he sold it. In 1846, he raised a
squadron of cavalry which he commanded with the rank of
captain, and served gallantly in the Mexican War. He was
admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United
States in 1849. He was regarded as an authority on Roman
law, and translated the Pandects into English. When the
war
between the States broke out in 1861, he was made a
brigadier-general in the Confederate Army, and placed in
command of the Indian Territory. In 1864, he resigned his
commission in the army to accept a place on the bench of
the Supreme Court of Arkansas. After the close of the
Civil
War he went to Memphis, Tenn., where he practiced law
and edited a morning paper. In 1868 he removed to
Washington, D. C., where he lived for the remaining
thirty-
three years of his life. He died on April 22, 1891, at the
age
of 82 years, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery,
Washington, D.C. A fine bronze statue, by the Italian
sculptor, Trentanove, was erected to his memory in 1901 by
the Supreme Council. It is located not far from the house
in-
here he lived for so many years in Washington. and where
he died. General Pike is depicted standing erect, with a
book in his right hand. At the base of the granite
pedestal is
a second figure representing the genius of Freemasonry,
holding aloft the banner of the Scottish Rite.
ALBERT PIKE was made a Mason in Little Rock, Ark., in
1850. He held conspicuous posts in all of the York Rite
bodies, but it was in the Scottish Rite that he made his
greatest fame and left his most enduring monument. He
received the Scottish Rite degrees, fourth to
thirty-second,
inclusive, in Charleston. S.C., March 20, 1853; was made
Inspector General Honorary, April 25, 1857. at New
Orleans,
La., and an active member of the Supreme Council,
Southern jurisdiction, March 20, 1858. General Pike was
chosen Sovereign Grand Commander ad vitam, January 2,
1859, in which position he continued until his death.
Judge
Hallum, in his "Biographical and Pictorial History of
Arkansas," 1887, Vol. 1, calls him "Albertus
Magnus - Albert
the Great!
Many years before his death General Pike uttered these
significant words: "When I am dead, I wish my
monument to
be builded in the hearts and memories of my brethren of
the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite." Albert Pike is
assuredly enshrined in the hearts and minds of the
brethren.
At every Scottish Rite banquet the participants arise and
drink a silent toast to his memory. A memorial service in
honor of Albert Pike is held at every meeting of the
Supreme
Council in Washington, the youngest active member of the
body delivering the oration on that occasion.
Albert Pike was essentially a scholar. He was well versed
in
the classics, translated several modern languages, and in
his old age acquired Hebrew, and Sanskrit. He appreciated
fully the underlying philosophy of the Vedas and Zend-
Avesta, and sought to link the Orient with the Occident.
The
Scottish Rite degrees, as interpreted by him, may be
called
a study in comparative religions. His translations and
commentaries of the Rig-Veda, the Cabala, etc., still
await
publication. Students may consult them, but not take them
from the library of the Rite. Let us hope they may
eventually
become available to all the world, for as Pike said:
"The
spirit of a writer is in his books, and if they are not
read, it is
imprisoned there like the body of an old king of Egypt in
its
sarcophagus." Some years ago, Bro. George Fleming
Moore, 33d, published in the New Age Magazine, some
portions of General Pike's extensive "Materials for
the
History of Freemasonry in France and Elsewhere on the
Continent of Europe, from 1718 to 1859."
IN THE LIBRARY left by Albert Pike are a number of books
on the occult, by "Eliphas Levi" (Alphonse Louis
Constant),
which in the seventies were not translated into English.
Levi
was, perhaps, the greatest of French mystics and
Cabalists.
General Pike borrowed considerably from Levi in his
degrees of "Knight of the Sun" and "Prince
of the Royal
Secret." The Doctrine of the Balance, which Pike
elucidates
in the latter degree, is obscurely hinted at in the Zohar.
Levi,
in his interpretation of the Cabala, says that "the
science of
equilibrium is the key of occult science. Unbalanced
forces
perish in the void." Albert Pike magnificently
illustrates the
Mystery of the Balance in his Morals and Dogma (pp. 838-
61). The Mystery of the Balance is the secret of the
Universal Equilibrium which exists in the universe between
conflicting energies and forces, whether they be mental or
physical. Says Pike: "Sympathy and Antipathy,
Attraction
and Repulsion, are contraries in the souls of men and in
the
universe of spheres and worlds; and from the action and
opposition of each against the other result Harmony and
that
movement which is the Life of the Universe and the Soul
alike."
II
THE CABALA - the symbols, sacred words and esoteric
doctrine - which has so influenced the degrees of the
Scottish Rite,. represents the theosophy of the Jews.
"It
contains," says Joseph Jacobs, in his Jewish
Contributions
to Civilization, "in itself all the mystic elements
of the
cultures through which Judaism has passed - the ectasies
of
the Bible theophanes, the Neo-Platonism of Alexandria, and
the Sufism of the Arabs." The word Cabala means to
receive; it is a mystical and religious doctrine handed
down
by oral transmission or tradition. It has been described
as a
system of cosmogony illustrating the nexus between God
and man; a system based to a large extent on numbers like
the Pythagorean philosophy; a subtle metaphysics that
treats of the nature of God and His emanations, veiled in
symbols, often by a huge fig-tire of an emblematical
character.
When Jerusalem was captured by Titus, the son of
Vespasian, and the second temple was destroyed, many of
the inhabitants of the Holy City fled from the victorious
Romans and sought refuge in the neighboring mountains.
Among them was the Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai, who had
been condemned to death by the Roman general. According
to tradition, he lived for twelve years in a cave,
hermit-like,
where he was visited by a faithful band of disciples. He
had
constant ecstatic visions like all mystics. He
communicated
the occult doctrines, orally transmitted from the
Patriarchs of
olden times, to his son Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary,
Rabbi Abba, who put them into writing for the first time.
>From this material was subsequently built up the
famous
Zohar, or splendor. This book, together with the Sepher
Jetzirah and the Commentary of the Ten Sephiroth,
constitutes the body and doctrine of the Cabalistic
teachings.
Says Jacobs:
The Zohar was probably put together in the thirteenth
century, but contains traces of much earlier strains of
mystical doctrine. It attracted the attention of men like
Raymond Lully, Picus de Mirandula, and traces of it are
even to be found in Dante. But its chief effect upon
European thought was in the period of the Reformation
when it served to supply to Protestantism that mystical
element which had been the chief attraction in the older
forms of faith. . . . In combination with a revival of
Pythagoreanism, it appealed to Reuchlin and Cornelius
Agrippa; in connection with the new study of Nature it
affected Paracelsus, Carden, Van Helmont, and Robert
Fludd, as well as, one may add, the rest of the Cambridge
Platonists; so far as Luther was philosophical, he derived
his
philosophy from the Cabala, with a touch of Gnosticism and
a coloring of Manichaeism, and in this he was followed by
Melancthon. The great German mystics, like Weigel and
Jacob Boehme, were also Cabalistic in general outline.
Just
as Catholicism had sought to temper the divine mysteries
by
the rationalism of Maimonides, so Protestantism, in its
turn,
modified its rationalistic tendencies by a resort to the
mysticism of the Cabala.
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