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1 ROYAL ARCH OF SOLOMON (13º) THE INFLUENCE OF WONDER ON SCOTTISH RITE FREEMASONRY © Mark C. Phillips, 32º, KSA * I. INTRODUCTION The gift of wonder is a miraculous thing. 1 According to Aristotle, wonder leads to the beginning of all knowledge, for wonder is an admission that we are ignorant about how things work. 2 We are encouraged to cultivate a healthy sense of wonder, for loss of wonder can lead both to stagnation in life and a loss of desire for learning altogether. 3 We tend to analyze too much sometimes in our Masonic education, searching for the deeper meaning behind this or that symbol. Perhaps we place too much emphasis on knowing things empirically, rather than just looking, listening, touching and relating. Sadly, we have lost much of the ancientsability to understand spiritual realities through the intense emotion known as wonder. 4 * Member of the Valley of Santa Ana, Orient of California. Knight of St. Andrew. Member of Orange Grove Lodge No. 293, F. & A.M., Orange, California. 1 Wonderand miracleare linguistically similar concepts, with common roots in Latin, Italian and Old Spanish. They are meant to convey a sense of the marvelous. The Encyclopædic Dictionary: A New Original Work of Reference To All the Words in the English Language, vol. 5 (London: Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1855), p. 54. Something is not necessarily wonderful in itself, but can engender wonder because of its seemingly miraculous qualities. For example, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were technically not θαυματα (wonders) but θεαματα (visible objects which inspired wonder). Peter A. Clayton and Martin J. Price, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1993), p. 4. Those ancient wonders engendered awe by their miraculoussize, majesty and beauty, and that sense of awe in turn generated wonder. Id. at p. 7. 2 Joseph Owens, The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics: A Study in the Greek Background in Mediæval Thought (Toronto, Ont.: Hunter Rose Company, 3rd ed. rev. 1978). Wonder is the fundamental underpinning that influences and spurs on continued understanding. One stops philosophizing if one stops wondering. Josef Pieper, For the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of Philosophy (San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, 2006), p. 60. Aristotelian wonderis a first principle. Jeff Malpus, Beginning in Wonder: Placing the Origin of Thinkingin Philosophical Romanticism, ed. Nikolas Kompridis (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 283. 3 Robert Russell Wicks, What is a Man? A Design for Living That Makes Sense (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1947), pp. 6-7. The tragedy with growing up is not that we lose childishness with its simplicity, but that childlikeness with its sublimity.Steve Beier, Maximum Impact: The Power of Virtue (Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2006), p. 62. A little less focus and busyness and a little more wonder and awe might be good for us. The psalmist had the right idea when he wrote, For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!’” Jamie and Katrina Holtom, Gift of a Child: Spiritual Lessons from the Life of a Child (Kelowna, British Columbia: Northstone Publishing, 2003), p. 105. 4 An eminent spiritual teacher made this observation as long ago as 1758. Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen (New York: The New-Church Board of Publication, Rotch ed. 1892), p. 241.

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Page 1: ROYAL ARCH OF SOLOMON (13º) THE INFLUENCE OF WONDER …guthriescottishrite.org/college/Lodge of Perfection... · myths, which are found throughout the world, and ascribed many symbolic

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ROYAL ARCH OF SOLOMON (13º)

THE INFLUENCE OF WONDER ON SCOTTISH RITE FREEMASONRY

© Mark C. Phillips, 32º, KSA∗

I. INTRODUCTION The gift of wonder is a miraculous thing.1 According to Aristotle, wonder leads to the beginning of all knowledge, for wonder is an admission that we are ignorant about how things work.2 We are encouraged to cultivate a healthy sense of wonder, for loss of wonder can lead both to stagnation in life and a loss of desire for learning altogether.3 We tend to analyze too much sometimes in our Masonic education, searching for the deeper meaning behind this or that symbol. Perhaps we place too much emphasis on knowing things empirically, rather than just looking, listening, touching and relating. Sadly, we have lost much of the ancients’ ability to understand spiritual realities through the intense emotion known as wonder.4

∗ Member of the Valley of Santa Ana, Orient of California. Knight of St. Andrew. Member of Orange

Grove Lodge No. 293, F. & A.M., Orange, California. 1 “Wonder” and “miracle” are linguistically similar concepts, with common roots in Latin, Italian and

Old Spanish. They are meant to convey a sense of the marvelous. The Encyclopædic Dictionary: A New Original Work of Reference To All the Words in the English Language, vol. 5 (London: Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1855), p. 54. Something is not necessarily wonderful in itself, but can engender wonder because of its seemingly miraculous qualities. For example, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were technically not θαυματα (wonders) but θεαματα (visible objects which inspired wonder). Peter A. Clayton and Martin J. Price, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1993), p. 4. Those ancient wonders engendered awe by their “miraculous” size, majesty and beauty, and that sense of awe in turn generated wonder. Id. at p. 7.

2 Joseph Owens, The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics: A Study in the Greek

Background in Mediæval Thought (Toronto, Ont.: Hunter Rose Company, 3rd ed. rev. 1978). Wonder is the fundamental underpinning that influences and spurs on continued understanding. One stops philosophizing if one stops wondering. Josef Pieper, For the Love of Wisdom: Essays on the Nature of Philosophy (San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, 2006), p. 60. Aristotelian “wonder” is a first principle. Jeff Malpus, “Beginning in Wonder: Placing the Origin of Thinking” in Philosophical Romanticism, ed. Nikolas Kompridis (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 283.

3 Robert Russell Wicks, What is a Man? A Design for Living That Makes Sense (New York: Charles

Scribner’s Sons, 1947), pp. 6-7. “The tragedy with growing up is not that we lose childishness with its simplicity, but that childlikeness with its sublimity.” Steve Beier, Maximum Impact: The Power of Virtue (Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2006), p. 62. “A little less focus and busyness and a little more wonder and awe might be good for us. The psalmist had the right idea when he wrote, ‘For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!’” Jamie and Katrina Holtom, Gift of a Child: Spiritual Lessons from the Life of a Child (Kelowna, British Columbia: Northstone Publishing, 2003), p. 105.

4 An eminent spiritual teacher made this observation as long ago as 1758. Emanuel Swedenborg,

Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen (New York: The New-Church Board of Publication, Rotch ed. 1892), p. 241.

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Gary Smalley taught us a powerful lesson about wonder about 20 years ago. He is an author and marriage counselor who sometimes lectures to televised audiences. On one occasion he passed around an old, worn-out violin and the audience paid it no heed – until Smalley said that it was an original Stradivarius. The audience audibly gasped in wonder at the revelation.5 They marveled at an old violin that was worth considerable value despite its decrepit appearance. They would have missed the message had they relied just on surface appearances. Something more was needed: a sense of wonder at cradling an original Stradivarius. Smalley concluded that “people make the decision that something is of high value.”6 The Thirteenth Degree can teach us life-changing lessons from the past, but only if we choose to recognize them through the spiritual eyes of wonder. The Thirteenth Degree is an allegorical story about something sacred that was carefully concealed eons ago to preserve its value. Its identity was not discovered until someone, filled with a spirit of reverent curiosity, reached back in time to retrieve it and bring it into the light of present day. The effort needed to retrieve that treasure, and the message it contains, can improve the Thirteenth Degree candidate immeasurably, by teaching that something’s intrinsic value is not always as it appears on the surface.7 Deeper, purer truths are available to those who dig, at least figuratively speaking.8 Anthropologists describe one source of this wonder as in illo tempore, a pristine, primordial time in collective human memory when life was simpler and more basic, when sacred truths seemed more readily accessible to all humanity. As we grow older, we reach back into our personal youthful memories to evoke those simpler times, not out of nostalgia, but to regain that which we seemingly have lost in our dash toward maturity. As we rediscover those truths, we can regard them with wonder and treasure them for their increased intrinsic value today.9

5 Gary Smalley and John Trent, Love is a Decision (New York: Pocket Books, 1989), pp. 33-34. 6 Smalley, Love is a Decision, p. 34. 7 Rex R. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light (Washington, D.C.: The Supreme Council, 33º, Southern

Jurisdiction, 2nd ed. 2001), p. 88. The Hiramic Legend sums up the fundamentals of Freemasonry and highlights the immortality of the soul. Carl H. Claudy, Foreign Countries: A Gateway to the Interpretation and Development of Certain Symbols of Freemasonry (Richmond, Va.: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, Inc., 1971), p. 85.

8 See, e.g., David R. Hankins, Spiritual Archaeology: Uncovering Motives of the Heart (Frederick,

Md.: PublishAmerica, 2004). During spiritual crises, men and women around the world have reached back to the “Axial Age” (800 BCE – 200 BCE), a pivotal time when order began to emerge from chaos, as the first systematic religious and morality schools emerged among the Chinese, Indians, Greeks and Jews. Unlike the Babylonian or Egyptian schools, these magi continue to influence large numbers of people even today. Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth (New York: Canongate, 2005), pp. 79-103; Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), p. xii. See also, e.g., Randall K. Van Schepen, “From the Form of the Spirit to the Spirit of Form” in Re-enchantment, ed. James Elkins and David Morgan (New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 49.

9 “In illo tempore” is a spiritual/anthropological term that refers to any non-historical moment which

stands outside human time, when important creative acts occur that shape symbolically the world in which

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The Thirteenth Degree teaches an important message that a sublime knowledge of Deity is possible through a reverent wonder for Deity’s Sacred Name.10 Such wonder was inculcated during the Twelfth Degree as we contemplated the careful construction of Solomon’s Temple, where the Sacred Name of Deity could be uttered only in the Holy of Holies. Our ability to evoke the Divine Name was seemingly “lost” when the temple was destroyed by Roman legionnaires in 70 CE. Until the physical temple is rebuilt someday, the Twelfth Degree teaches us that we can only preserve the memory of the Name within the spiritual Holy of Holies that we build within our hearts. In the Thirteenth Degree, however, we discover that the Sacred Name is still accessible. It may seem a surprise, like the Stradivarius, because it does not seem readily apparent unless we move beyond surface appearances and exercise some wonder and curiosity about what we do not know. In the dramatic part of the degree, laborers were breaking ground for the construction of an administrative center for justice (a courthouse) in Jerusalem when they stumbled upon a subterranean passage whose existence had lain hidden for centuries. We learn that, before the Great Flood,11 Deity had instructed the ancient Jewish Patriarch Enoch to preserve the Ineffable Name for future generations by carving it onto a bejeweled golden plate, attaching the plate to a cube of agate and placing it atop a pedestal within an underground vault hewn out of solid rock. The vault was accessible only by descending through nine concealed arches. At King Solomon’s direction, three Intendants of the Building worked together to lower themselves through all nine arches, retrieved the ancient treasure and presented it to Solomon. He recognized

we now live. Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, trans. Philip Mairet (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), p. 152. Examples include the creation of the world (acted out today through vivid fertility rites) and Deity overcoming ultimate Evil (acted out today by champions battling each other). Mythic language lets us tell the story of what happened in illo tempore, and ritual allows us to re-enter that sacred time and space from our current vantage point. Richard G. Walsh, Mapping Myths of Biblical Interpretation (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, Ltd., 2001), p. 66. “Every ritual is the repetition of a primal action which took place in illo tempore. . . . What we are primarily concerned with is the model, the archetype upon which these customs rest: all these things are done because they were done in illo tempore by divine beings, done to fit in with a ritual order then being established.” Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Rosemary Sheed (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), p. 320, italics in original; see also, e.g., Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return; or, Cosmos and History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 24-25. In more whimsical, but no less important, terms, see, e.g., Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things (New York: Ivy Books, 1988).

10 Finding the Divine Word is not a Masonic parlor game. Because Freemasons regard Deity and the

Name of Deity as co-equal in power and majesty, Freemasons revere the Name of Deity as a living, creative force in the world. Robert Hewitt Brown, Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy (Pomeroy, Wash.: Health Resource Books, 1996), p. 89.

11 Henry C. Clausen, Clausen’s Commentaries on Morals and Dogma (Washington, D.C.: The

Supreme Council, 33º, Southern Jurisdiction, 1974), p. 68. The Victorians were fascinated by Deluge myths, which are found throughout the world, and ascribed many symbolic meanings to them. Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (San Diego, Calif.: The Book Tree, 2006), p. 97. The antediluvian people are characterized as a great race of superheroes and possessors of great, magical powers. Nicholas de Vere, The Dragon Legacy: The Secret History of an Ancient Bloodline (San Diego, Calif.: The Book Tree, 2004), pp. 7-9.

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its profound significance and rewarded them for their courageous diligence by conferring upon them the title of Royal Arch Masons. Just as we can preserve the memory of King Solomon’s destroyed temple by erecting a personal, spiritual dwelling place within the secret recesses of our hearts, so too we can preserve the memory of Enoch’s forgotten temple by reaching back in illo tempore to find the eternal, timeless Divine Name that Deity has bequeathed to each of us. But we cannot find that legacy through dry, clinical study – without wonder, we will not even be curious enough to search for its existence. We must peer down into the musty, mysterious darkness of our personal pasts, summon the courage to submerge ourselves into the unknown, and submit ourselves to the sublime truth we may find therein.12 We thus learn in the Thirteenth Degree that not everything in life is as it seems today,13 and that the latest fad or development is not necessarily an improvement on the past.14 Like Gary Smalley’s deceptively valuable violin, the lesson of the subterranean vault can teach us what is valuable in life if we approach it with “reverent curiosity,” a term used commonly by some of Albert Pike’s contemporaries.15 Pike taught us that such curiosity is an essential key to discovering the mysteries of Deity:

Everything within us and without us ought to stir our minds to admiration and wonder. We are a mystery encompassed with mysteries. The connection of mind with matter is a mystery; the wonderful telegraphic communication between the brain and every part of the body, the power and action of the will. Every familiar step is more than a story in a land of enchantment. The power of movement is as mysterious as the power of thought. Memory and dreams that are the indistinct echoes of dead memories are alike inexplicable. Universal harmony springs from infinite complication. The momentum of every step we take in our dwelling contributes in part to the order of the Universe. We are connected by ties

12 Kathryn Hume, Fantasy and Mimesis: Responses to Reality in Western Literature (New York:

Methuen, Inc., 1984), pp. 30-31. 13 See, e.g., John Steinbeck, East of Eden (New York: Penguin Books, 2002), p. 306. 14 “Be aware of – but not be guided by – current theories, the latest statistics, or the research method

you just mastered for your last project; rather, let the phenomenon itself determine which theories, statistics and methods you should use.” Melissa Bowerman, “Inducing the Latent Structure of Language” in The Development of Language and Language Researches: Essays in Honor of Roger Brown, ed. Frank S. Kessel (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1988), p. 27.

15 Anonymous, “Something About Bridges,” The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 12, no. 74 (Dec. 1863), p.

742; J.J. Blunt, The Acquirements and Principal Obligations and Duties of the Parish Priest (London: John Murray, 3rd ed. 1858), p. 64. “What we want is simplicity, emotional directness, open-mindedness, intelligent sympathy, keen and yet reverent curiosity, the scientific combined with the religious attitude toward fact.” John Addington Symonds, Essays Speculative and Suggestive (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 3rd ed. 1907), p. 247.

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of thought, and even of matter and its forces, with the whole boundless Universe and all the past and coming generations of men. The humblest object beneath our eye as completely defies our scrutiny as the economy of the most distant star. Every leaf and every blade of grass holds within itself secrets which no human penetration will ever fathom. No man can tell what is its principle of life. No man can know what his power of secretion is. Both are inscrutable mysteries. Wherever we place our hand we lay it upon the locked bosom of mystery. Step where we will, we tread upon mysteries. The sea-sands, the clods of the field, the water-worn pebbles on the hills, the rude masses of rock, are traced over and over, in every direction, with a handwriting older and more significant and sublime than all the ancient ruins, and all the overthrown and buried cities that past generations have left upon the earth; for it is the handwriting of the Almighty.16

Pike was a mystic because he emphasized intuition and faith, rather than reason and knowledge, as the ways to gain divine wisdom.17 He believed that the ultimate purpose of Masonry is to bring us into perfect harmony with Deity. This can be accomplished, said Pike, by reflecting upon allegories and symbols handed down from antiquity until they impart individual light to each of us.18 Pike looked to the distant past – in illo tempore – because he believed therein were answers to the pressing questions of his day.19 This included the ultimate question of knowing Deity: “Among all the ancient nations[,] there was one faith and one idea of Deity for the enlightened, intelligent, and educated, and another for the common people.”20 Whether we count ourselves among the intelligentsia or the common folk, Pike taught that all persons may come to know Deity. His appeal to antiquity is appealing for anyone

16 Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

(Charleston, S.C.: The Supreme Council, 33º, Southern Jurisdiction, 1871), pp. 215-216, italics added. 17 Pound, “Lectures on the Philosophy of Masonry,” p. 75. 18 Roscoe Pound, “Lectures on the Philosophy of Masonry” in Masonic Addresses and Writings of

Roscoe Pound (Richmond, Va.: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1953), pp. 82-84. “Masonry in Pike’s view does not offer us predigested food. It offers us a wholesome fare which we must digest for ourselves. But what a feast! It is nothing less than the whole history of human search for reality. And through it he conceives, through mastery of it, we shall master the universe.” Ibid., p. 84.

19 Masonic scholar Allen E. Roberts agrees: “Nothing existing today is unconnected with the past. The

connection may be remote, but it’s still there. The philosophy of Freemasonry is closely connected with the past. It has preserved, fortunately, the wisdom it took centuries for man to acquire. Masonry, through its symbolism, has kept this wisdom alive. It allows men to interpret this symbolism as his mind and heart dictate. It leaves men free to speculate, to think, to create.” Allen E. Roberts, The Craft and Its Symbols: Opening the Door to Masonic Symbolism (Richmond, Va.: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, Inc., 1974), p. 82.

20 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 206, italics in original.

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who is filled with awe and wonder for that legacy.21 Pike favored a reliance on ancient wisdom that has withstood the test of time. As Brother Roscoe Pound explained:

I can do no more than give you a key to what I conceive to be Pike’s philosophy of Masonry. Perhaps the first point to make is that in nineteenth-century America philosophy was regarded, under the influence of Herbert Spencer, as the unification of knowledge. Moreover, the metaphysical method of the first half of the nineteenth century, when Pike’s ideas were formative, was to endeavor to explain everything in a “speculative, metaphysical way by a spiritual, logical principle.” But it so happened that all antiquity had been making a like search for the One but for a different sort of One. The earlier Greek philosophers sought a single element to which the whole universe might be reduced. The Ionian philosophers sought to find such elements in air or fire or water or, as one of them put it, “a primordial slime.” Oriental thinkers had usually sought an absolute word which was to be the key of all things. Others among the ancients had sought an absolute principle. With vast labor Pike brings together all that ancient and Oriental peoples thought and wrote and that mystics have since thought and written with the ideas of the Orient and of antiquity as a basis and upon this foundation he sets forth to work out a system of his own.22

This is best achieved by cultivating a spirit of wonder and awe, for Deity is not a scientific object to be quantified analytically, but a loving Parent who wants to embrace us.23 That embrace should engender emotive feelings about Deity.24 Wonder and awe are not relegated to ethereal rapture; Pike insisted that we can find Deity in the regularities of daily life, if we simply open our hearts to that possibility: “Certainly there are many evils and bad passions, and much hate and contempt and unkindness everywhere in the world. We cannot refuse to see the evil that is in life. But all is not evil. We still see God in the world.”25

21 “There can be no enduring security, no lasting peace, no practical cooperation within the classes of

society of the sovereign States of the political sphere without the conviction that all men share a common heritage of opportunity and responsibility.” Manly P. Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity (Los Angeles, Calif.: The Philosophical Research Society, Inc., 1978), p. 6.

22 Pound, “Lectures on the Philosophy of Masonry,” p. 78. 23 Even within Christianity, though, there is a tension of whether to address Deity by the familiar

Aramaic abba or the reverent Latin patēr. Robert H. Stein, The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), p. 85.

24 A “theology of feeling” emphasizes the use of emotions, intuition and descriptive religious language

to reveal religious self-consciousness. David K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), p. 281.

25 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 214.

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Indeed, divine love has been extended to us since the beginning of human history,26 and Pike would have us approach Deity with a reverential awe for how Deity has communicated with humanity throughout the ages. Deity may be an Eternal Now,27 but Masonic tradition teaches that Deity has bequeathed landmarks in every human epoch that reveal important lessons about Deity. They qualify as Masonic landmarks because they have existed from time immemorial, and they teach us sublime truths:

In the patriarchal dispensation, we find many Masonic Landmarks, and the proper illustration of them is essential to the well-being of the Order. Those who affect to consider Masonry a modern institution either overlook this fact, or doubt the genuineness of the Landmarks; either of which is disingenuous, to say the least of it. But while we are employed in tracing our legitimate Landmarks to a very remote period, we cannot divest ourselves of a concurrence in the fact, that, as a history of the times in which a Landmark occurs, becomes a regular Masonic pursuit, so the antiquity of the science may be proved, if not to demonstration, at least so far as may be necessary to satisfy the scruples of the most fastidious Brother.28

Unlike those who stress a rigorous scientific scrutiny of historical events, Pike insisted that they are best understood – like Deity – through the respectful gaze of wonder.29 Intellectual debates can be scintillating, but sadly they can degenerate into sophistic quarrels, such as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.30 Regardless of the the answer, the multi-sided nature of virtually any debate implies disagreement,

26 “God is not aloof. He says continually through the centuries, ‘I’ll help you, I really will. When

you’re ready to throw up your hands – throw them up to me.’” Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God’s Spirit Invades the Hearts of His People (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1997).

27 “With God there is no Time – it is one eternal Now.” Kerr Boyce Tupper, Robertson’s Living

Thoughts (Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Co., 1881), p. 81. 28 George Oliver, The Historical Landmarks and Other Evidences of Freemasonry: Explained in a

Series of Practical Lectures, with Copious Notes, vol. I (New York: Masonic Publishing & Manufacturing Co., 1867), p. 143. See also, e.g., Albert G. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences Comprising the Whole Range of Arts, Sciences and Literature as Connected with the Institution, Vol. I (New York: The Masonic History Company, rev. ed. 1913), p. 440.

29 J. Rogatz, “What Are We Doing for Masonry? What is Masonry Doing for Us?” The New Age

Magazine, vol. 18 (January 1913): 87. 30 In one sense the question is a mere tease. Perhaps only one angel can dance thereon. Perhaps an

infinite number of angels can do so. It seems nonsensical because angels do not possess physical bodies and we cannot quantify the number of spiritual bodies within a physical space. John Connolly, The Gates of Hell Are About to Open: Want to Peek? (New York: Atria Books, 2009), p. 28. But the question is not necessarily a rebuke of medieval scholasticism. It can also be an invitation to study the intricacies of modern quantum physics. Peter Kreeft, Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really Know About Them? (San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, 1995), pp. 70-71.

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uncertainty and possibly displeasure over the debate’s outcome.31 Rigorous mental scrutiny should, therefore, be better reserved for subjects other than sacred truths. Instead, we should allow ourselves to gaze upon them with wonder so that we may learn and better understand their value.32 Ancient landmarks that teach us about Deity are appropriately perceived through an emotive, wonder-filled gaze, for the gift of wonder quickens life, which is the purpose behind contemplating Deity. To experience wonder and awe about ancient landmarks is not an end in itself, but the means that we employ to expand our knowledge about things previously unseen.33 Wonder and awe can exist only when there is a strong respect for that which is being studied.34 That includes Masonic wonder about Deity and the created universe.35

II. THE RITUAL OF THIS DEGREE Doctor George Oliver, an Anglican cleric and Masonic scholar in early Nineteenth Century England, once remarked that the essence of Freemasonry is the contemplation of Deity, which ought to inspire wonder, awe and admiration in the heart of every sincere Freemason.36 That wonder can be fostered by pondering our rituals, which help to bring the ancient landmarks into current perspective. Masonic rituals might not descend literally from ancient rites, but many of them are inspired by the legends of antiquity.37 To ponder the ancient truths contained in the Thirteenth Degree ritual, to mention one, can help to instill the gift of wonder in its candidates. The Thirteenth Degree is an active degree: we learned about virtues in the preceding degrees, and now we put them into practice as we ponder why we wish to plumb beneath

31 Such words as “argument,” “debate” and dispute” can be used interchangeably as verbal expressions of disagreement. Funk & Wagnall’s Modern Guide to Synonyms and Related Words, ed. Samuel Ichiyé Hayakawa (New York: Funk & Wagnall, 1968), p. 127. See also, e.g., John Meany and Kate Schuster, On That Point! An Introduction to Parliamentary Debate (New York: International Debate Educational Association, 2008), p. 103.

32 Benjamin Keach, Preaching From the Types and Metaphors of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Mich.:

Kregel Publications, 1972), p. 934. 33 Donald Moore, The Human and the Holy: The Spirituality of Abraham Joshua Heschel (New York:

Fordham University Press, 1989), p. 60. “Science takes us to wonder and awe; religion, to communion and service.” Daniel Dorchester, The Problem of Religious Progress (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1900), p. 157.

34 Julie Andrews, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (New York: Hyperion, 2008), p. 18. 35 George Oliver, Institutes of Masonic Jurisprudence; Being an Exemplification of the English Book of

Constitutions (New York: R. Macoy, 1859), p. 447. 36 George Oliver, “The Great Plan of Human Salvation Traced in Freemasonry, By the Light of One of

Its Most Prominent Symbols” in The Freemasons’ Quarterly Review (June 30, 1845): 157, 160. 37 H.L. Haywood and James E. Craig, History of Freemasonry (New York: The John Day Co., 1927),

p. 43; “Freemasonry, Old as the Hills, Now Said to Be the Parent of Religion,” The Literary Digest, vol. 61, no. 12 (June 21, 1919): 70.

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the surface.38 The degree originated in Scotland as the story of the lost ineffable Word that was discovered by Scottish crusaders, and Freemasons disseminated various strains of it throughout France and Ireland before its arrival in America.39 “However the legend may vary, however the ceremonies of reception and the preliminary steps of initiation may differ, the consummation is always the same – the great discovery which represents the attainment of TRUTH.”40 What is that truth and how is it obtained? Some believe that Royal Arch Masonry is the completion of the Master Mason degree because it purports to answer the great unanswered question of Craft Masonry.41 The Master Mason degree concludes that the Sacred Name is lost, and that a substitute must be employed until the original is rediscovered at some future time.42 This begs the question of how the Lost Word might be regained. The Royal Arch degree presents an alternate ending to Craft Masonry, arguably by referring to an older set of teachings from the secret tradition which preceded Symbolic Freemasonry.43 The candidate is invited to return to illo tempore, to the ancient mysteries, although his efforts might seem like folly on the surface, and return bearing the Lost Word which has always lain dormant in his heart.44 Unlike the Master Mason who might think he needs to look outside himself for

38 In some circles, the successful candidate of the Thirteenth Degree is called the “Master of the Ninth

Arch.” Edgar Alexander Russell, Thoughts Inspired by the A.A. Scottish Rite Degrees (Chicago: Edgar A. Russell Co., 2nd ed. 1919), pp. 70-72. Royal Arch Masonry ponders similar concepts, whether in the Scottish Rite or the York Rite. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences, p. 670.

39 The story has two parallel lines, one involving the Royal Arch of Enoch (Scottish Rite) and the other

involving the Royal Arch of Zerubbabel (York Rite). The Cyclopædia of Fraternities, ed. Albert Clark Stevens (New York: E.B. Treat & Co., 1907), p. 36.

40 Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences, p. 760. 41 Arthur Edward Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2 (New York: Weathevane Books,

rev. ed. 1970), p. 375. While the Word remains lost in the Master Mason degree, the Royal Arch degree shows how it can be regained. S. Brent Morris, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry (New York: Alpha Books, 2006), pp. 92-93.

42 Henry Pirtle, The Lost Word of Freemasonry (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1993), p.

3; J.D. Buck, Lost Word Found (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1992), pp. 2-4. 43 Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, pp. 375-376. The earliest mention of the Royal

Arch title, but not degree, comes from Ireland (1743) and York (1744). Charles Sumner Lobingier, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1992), p. 149. The Royal Arch degree was first conferred in the North American colonies at Fredericksburg, Virginia (1753). Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, p. 376. Capitular Masonry was officially instituted in America after the Revolution. Eugene Grissom, “The Cryptic Masonry” in History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and Concordant Orders, ed. Leonard Stillson, et al. (Boston, Mass.: The Fraternity Publishing Co., 1906), p. 647.

44 Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, p. 377. Old versions of the degree set the scene

either at Solomon’s Temple or Zerubbabel’s Temple. One version alternatively set the scene as repair work that King Josiah was performing on Zerubbabel’s Temple. Ibid., pp. 376-377. Given these variations, one lesson from the Thirteenth Degree is that the physical details are not as important as whether we maintain a personal temple of our own making within ourselves. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 377.

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the substitute, the Royal Arch Mason knows the eternal path to gaining ultimate sacred truth itself lies solely within himself. Royal Arch Masonry is less focused on our efforts to obtain the Lost Word, and more on the kindness of Deity who allows the Word to be retrieved. The Deity who is depicted in this degree is not the typical Christian motif, a la the Good Shepherd, and it is notable that there are no explicit Biblical references in this Degree. This Deity is primordial and has concealed certain ultimate truths from us for eons because we were unworthy to receive them. The Thirteenth Degree elevates Deity far above humanity; Deity is “towering and imposing.” We are utterly reliant on Deity to dispense the Word to us, for without the Word, we are lost. 45 The focus in this degree is really on the gratuitous charity of Deity, not on the arduous labor we must perform. The ritualistic journey of the Thirteenth Degree begins with the admission of at least three candidates. They seek to attain perfection by working together to recreate symbolically the acts performed millennia ago by three men, all ostensibly from ancient Israel – Adoniram, Joabert and Stolkin.46 Unlike the Twelfth Degree, which explicitly draws its story from the Biblical description of how King Solomon’s temple was built, the Thirteenth Degree draws its story from non-Biblical materials. Adoniram is the same person who earned the title of Grand Master Architect in the Twelfth Degree. He is joined in this degree by Joabert and Stolkin, who are likewise Intendants of the Building. However, unlike Adoniram, whose character has at least some meager Biblical support, Joabert and Stolkin are purely Masonic creations; there is no record of either their names or their characters in the Bible.47 Pike explained their Masonic value for the candidates:

The three Masters, Adoniram, Joabert, and Stolkin, are types of the True Mason, who seeks for knowledge from pure motives, and that he may be the better enabled to serve and benefit his fellow-men; while the discontented and presumptuous Masters who were buried in the ruins of the arches represent those who strive to acquire it for unholy purposes, to

45 Mark C. Carnes, Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale

University Press, 1989), p. 47. 46 Normally, the degree will not be presented for less than three candidates at one time. Albert Pike,

Magnum Opus or The Great Work of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 2004), p. XIII . . . 3.

47 Masonic tradition informs us that Joabert discovered the assassins of Hiram Abif when they were

hiding in Joppa, and Stolkin discovered the Grand Master Hiram Abif’s body. Thus, they were both discoverers of personal tragedy. Richard Carlile, “To William Williams, Esq., M.P. Provincial Grand Master of the Association of the Free Masons for the County of Dorset,” The Republican, vol. 12, no. 7 (Aug. 19, 1825): 197. Joabert was one of King Solomon’s personal favorites, even if he did run afoul of Hiram Abif. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. I, p. 370. Less is known about Stolkin, only that he was an inspector over the tribe of Benjamin and a “searcher out” of criminals.” Masonic Quiz Book, ed. William O. Peterson (Chicago, Ill.: Charles Powner, 1949), p. 278.

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gain power over their fellows, to gratify their pride, their vanity, or their ambition.48

The trio is assigned to explore an ancient underground temple which is located “in a vault deep under ground, hallowed in the solid rock by the Patriarch Enoch.”49 First they must raise a trap door that was fitted with an iron ring, then lower themselves past nine vertically descending arches into the ground, before reaching a cell that was hewn out of solid rock in antediluvian days. This cannot be a solitary journal, for the explorers must rely on each other to be lowered and then retrieved by ropes.50 Awaiting them inside the vault is a cubical stone of agate, upon which the Jewish patriarch Enoch carved the Tetragrammaton, the ineffable name of Deity.51 The stone is lit from within so as to illuminate the pitch-dark cavern.52 Upon making this discovery, the candidates kneel in adoration, then bring the precious stone to the Chapter Room, where they are obligated as Royal Arch Masons.53 They are shown the Sacred Name but instructed emphatically never to pronounce it aloud except by alternating its multiple-syllable Name amongst themselves.54

48 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 210. 49 Furthermore, “[i]f you would see that treasure, you must descend as they did into the deep vault

where it remains deposited, and so entitle yourselves to attain the degree you seek.” Pike, Magnum Opus, pp. XIII . . . 4.

50 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 4. 51 Devout Jews have consistently held the Tetragrammaton, Deity’s revealed name, in the greatest

reverence. G.H. Parke-Taylor, Yahweh: The Divine Name in the Bible (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1975), pp. 79-96; Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 27. Some ancient peoples thought they could control deities by invoking divine names, but the Jews have refused to pronounce the Sacred Name out of a sense of humility and submission to Deity. Karen Armstrong, The Case for God (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), p. 39. Medieval Christian theologians devised lists of divine names to enumerate Deity’s attributes, but they still recognized that these names/qualities do not replicate Deity’s true essence. Encyclopedia of Christian Theology, ed. Jean-Yves Lacoste, vol. 1 (New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 114-115.

52 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 5. 53 Pike, Magnum Opus, pp. XIII . . . 5-6. 54 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 6. This is a variation from the Twelfth Degree, where only the

Jewish High Priest may utter the Ineffable Name, and then only in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. Some speculate that the Ineffable Name was lost in the Master Mason degree, not because it is a one-syllable word that all three Grand Masters were required to pronounce together, but because it is a three-syllable word and each Grand Master was invested with only one syllable. If so, then one of those syllables was lost with the death of the Grand Master Hiram Abif, and the surviving kings could only repeat the two syllables they knew; they could not replicate the missing syllable that was known only to Hiram Abif. Buck, Lost Word Found, pp. 3-4. This theory is consistent with the Hebrew language, which contains only consonants. The absence of written vowels renders Hebrew text capable of different pronunciations, hence possible different nuances meanings. Joseph Shimronn, Reading Hebrew: The Language and The Psychology of Reading It (Mahweh, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, Inc., 2006), p. 5.

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Capitular (York Rite) Masonry differs from the Scottish Rite’s Thirteenth Degree by teaching that the Lost Name retrieved in this story is not the Tetragrammaton, but Jah-Bul-On, a hybrid name consisting of one syllable each from the names of the Hebrew deity Jehovah, Assyrian deity Baal, and Egyptian deity Osiris. Pike was reportedly astounded when he heard this combination: ‘No man or body of men can make me accept as a sacred word, as a symbol of the infinite and eternal godhead, a mongrel word, whose name has been for more than two thousand years an appellation of the Devil.”55 Despite the lack of clear Biblical reference, the Scottish Rite version of the story is more overtly Judeo-Christian than Capitular Masonry’s account. We need look only to the primary historical inspirations for Pike’s story. The first inspiration was an early Fifth Century Christian text, the Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius, which recounts when Julian the Apostate attempted to rebuild Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem in the Fourth Century CE. Philostorgius was an educated Christian layman born in Cappadocia ca 368 CE. He was anti-Gnostic and reputed to have a “lively intellectual curiosity.”56 It is well-known that Julian was a Byzantine emperor who rejected Christianity in the late Fourth Century C.E. and advocated a return to pre-Christian paganism. He intended to rebuild the temple, both as a way to curry favor with the Jews and to discredit Christians, who believed that the temple could be rebuilt only by the Lord in connection with the Second Coming. Unfortunately for Julian, his efforts were frustrated by a series of natural disasters and he was never able to rebuild the temple.57 He died on the battlefield the following year.58 Philostorgius added a fictitious flourish at the end of the story, apparently to further denigrate Julian’s anti-religious spite. The fictitious appendage is that supposedly in the course of breaking ground to rebuild the temple, Julian’s workers moved some loose rubble and a stone slipped away to reveal the mouth of a deep cave. Workers were let down by ropes into a square room, situated beneath Mount Moriah and the ravaged foundations of the former temple. Therein they discovered a Hebrew copy of the Prologue to John’s Gospel.59 The Prologue expounds the Name of Deity (Λογος in the

55 William Whalen, Christianity and American Freemasonry (San Francisco, Calif.; Ignatius Press, 1998), p. 94.

56 Philostorgius: Church History, trans. Philip R. Amidos (Atlanta, Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature,

2007), p. xviii. 57 John W. Barber, Elements of General History; Embracing All the Leading Events in the World’s

History From the Earliest Period to the End of the Late Civil War in the United States (New Haven, Conn.: Horace C. Peck, 1866), pp. 116-117.

58Rabbinic Stories, trans. Jeffrey L. Rubenstein (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2002), p. 61; Israel Smith

Clare, The Centennial Universal History of All Nations, With a Full History of the United States to the Close of the First 100 Years of Our National Independence (Philadelphia, Penn.: J.C. McCurdy & Co., 1876), pp. 108-109.

59 The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen; Also The Ecclesiastical History of Philostorgius, trans.

Edward Walford (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), pp. 482-483. See also, Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 465 and Henry Corbin, Temple and Contemplation (London: KPI Ltd., 1986), p. 345.

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original Greek version of John’s Gospel): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”60 The moral of this appendage is that religion’s pure message perseveres despite futile human attacks; although it can seem lost for awhile, it has always survived so that it may be re-implemented.61 Pike’s historical inspiration also includes an anonymous, somewhat related Talmudic source.62 It refers to the existence of a vault beneath the original Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple, supported by seven arches raised upon seven pairs of pillars. The vault was built to protect various valuables (including the Ark of the Covenant, which was put there for safekeeping by order of Solomon’s successor, King Josiah), and its location was obscured by rubble when the temple was destroyed. The vault and its contents were reportedly unearthed and brought to light only during the construction of Zerubbabel’s Temple (the Second Temple, which replaced Solomon’s Temple and preceded Herod’s Temple).63 The legend of this secret vault is replicated in Royal Arch Masonry.64 Its lesson is that the vault contains considerable spiritual wealth for those deemed worthy to receive it. The physical objects leading to, and located inside, the vault have symbolic meaning too, beginning with the trap door.65 In mining terms, a trap door is used either to direct air currents in ventilating systems, or to prevent surface wind from deranging the normal direction of air currents.66 The trap door thus serves a protective purpose; it preserves the pristine, undisturbed nature of the vaults from inappropriate and unworthy trespassers.67

60 Holy Bible (KJV, 1979), John 1:1. 61 This has sometimes been called “Adonhiramite Masonry.” Edward Arthur Waite, “Masonic

Tradition and the Royal Arch,” British Masonic Miscellany, Part 14 (Dundee, Scotland: David Winter and Son, n.d.), pp. 131, 142.

62 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 9. 63 Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, p. 465; Mackey, Encylopedia of Freemasonry,

pp. 822-823. The vault survived the destruction of Herod’s temple and may be the same subterranean mosque that was described in a 19th century English travelogue of Jerusalem. W.H. Bartlett, Walks About the City and Environs of Jerusalem (London: Hall & Virtue, 1844), p. 823. This coincides with the ancient belief that caves and underground vaults (which resemble graves) are inherently sacred sites. Mackey, Encylopedia of Freemasonry, p. 823.

64 Mackey, Encylopedia of Freemasonry, p. 822. 65 Royal Arch Masonry describes it as a square stone, placed amid the rubbish where the Grand Master

Hiram Abiff’s body was first buried. Arthur Edward Waite, Secret Tradition in Freemasonry (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1992), p. 452.

66 The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, ed. William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin Eli Smith, vol.

10 (New York: The Century Co., 1911), p. 7063; Supplement to Spons Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, Military, and Naval, ed. Edward Spon (London: E. & F.N. Spon, 1880), p. 624.

67 The iron ring could be, but need not be, a handle for lifting the door. See, e.g., Anonymous,

“Luther’s Ring,” The European Magazine and London Review, vol. 87 (April 1825): 310. The term “iron

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The trap door may be sprung only by someone who has been educated in how to enter the restricted area and search therein for worthy purposes.68 Whoever seeks to reach back in illo tempore may only do so with worthy intent and not for self-serving reasons. The subterranean location of the passageway and vault is significant. Traditionally one entered caves and underground cellars to be initiated into the ancient mysteries, to experience a symbolic death and burial in the journey toward eternal truth.69 Entry required the knowledge and proper use of a password (verbum significant[i]um) needed to unlock those secrets which are buried deeply underground and waiting for a pivotal moment in history when desperate mankind goes searching for them because we finally admit that we can no longer survive without the truth.70 To learn the same principle, we can appreciate that even today the cornerstone of important buildings is buried in the earth, to symbolize the building’s initial step upward, out of the earth and into the light.71 So, we must return to our primordial roots to find the truth. The nine arches are also illustrative. Arches generally denote security, and in folklore they protect against evil spirits.72 The nine arches correspond to nine substitute names for Deity in Egyptian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Indian and Assyrian.73 Pike thus explains:

ring” can also mean that the sides of the uppermost vault rested upon a metal flanged ring, which would form the outermost opening of the structure and closed by the hinged trap door. Supplement to Spons Dictionary of Engineering, p. 624.

68 An easy passage without any restrictions may tempt those who are unprepared for initiation, and trap

them. Andrew Clements, The Janitor’s Boy (New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2000), p. 64. One who is properly prepared and initiated, for example, knows the correct password, whether the Biblical injunction to “knock and it shall be opened unto you” (Holy Bible, Matthew 7:7.) or the more popular “open sesame” command of Arabian Nights fame (Anne Charlotte Leffler Edgren, “Open Sesame” in Library of the World’s Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, vol. 13, ed. Charles Dudler Warner (New York: The International Society, 1897), p. 5164.).

69 Egyptian subterranean initiatory rites can be traced back to Memphis and, even further back, to the

Egyptian Coffin Text (ca. 2200 B.C.E.). Darius A. Spieth, Napoleon’s Sorcerors: The Sophisians (Danvers, Mass.: Rosemont Publishing & Printing Co., 2007), p. 52; Paul A. LaViolette, Genesis of the Cosmos: The Ancient Science of Continuous Creation (Rochester, Vt.: Bear & Co., 2004), p. 131. Some modern psychotherapists use the imagery of ancient subterranean initiations for cathartic benefit. Wilma Scategic, Psychodrama, Group Processes and Dreams: Archetypal Images of Individuation, trans. Vincent Marsicano (New York: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2002), pp. xiv, 94-104.

70 Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol (New York, Doubleday, 2009), p. 408. What Brown calls

significatium is elsewhere called significatum, i.e., what is actually meant by an outer word, versus significabile, i.e., all that can be meant by an outer word. “Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas” in Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, vol. 2, ed. Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran (Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 1997), p. 15.

71 Brown, The Lost Symbol, p. 485. 72 Sandra A. Thompson, Cloud Nine: A Dreamer’s Dictionary (New York: Quill, 2003), p. 139. 73 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 6. Gnostic texts suggest that Jewish Kabalism had multiple

substitute names for the Ineffable Name of Deity in ancient times. See, e.g., M. Gaster, Sword of Moses: An Ancient Book (London, n.p. 1896), pp. 8-9.

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“These are styled the covering words: because they cover and conceal from the Profane the True Name of God, known to the first men and revealed by God to Moses.”74 The number nine has Masonic importance, as the perfection of three multiplied upon itself.75 Kabalistic significance is ascribed to the nine arches. Anciently, Deity was associated with the sun, whose full strength was demonstrated at the summer solstice. As the sun passes downward through the zodiac arch, the ninth or lowest arch falls on December 21st, which is the winter solstice or the darkest day of the year. As the sun is retrieved and resumes its ascent through the nine successive arches, one returns to the summer solstice and is figuratively reborn with complete light.76 The arches thereby signify that this is a sacred place, imbued with Deity’s very essence. The contents of the vault also emphasize the supernatural power of sunlight. The Ineffable Name is inscribed on a bejeweled gold plate, which some ancient peoples considered a perfect metal and which imitates the color of the sun.77 The golden plate was then set into a cubical piece of agate, which is a stone that represents the month of June, or the summer solstice when the sunniest day of the year occurs.78 The cubical shape of the stone is a shape that is sacred to Apollo, who is identical to Helios, the sun god (returning again to the symbolic value of gold).79 The lessons become clear: the Thirteenth Degree invites us to encounter Deity in a protected sacred space that is dedicated to Deity, viz., the private quietude of our deepest personal self, if we willingly

74 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 7. Linguists have not successfully traced the origins of the Tetragrammaton because the early Semitics had several deities with similar-sounding names, at least some of which were amalgamated into the official Jewish Deity as the Israelites became a more cohesive people. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., rev. 1982), p. 505; The Jewish People, Past and Present, vol. 1 (New York: Jewish Encyclopedic Handbooks, Inc., 1946), p. 338.

75 Numerically, nine is a sign of every circumference and is thus representative of earth itself.

Anciently, the number nine was consecrated to the Spheres and Muses. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 573.

76 Brown, Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy, p. 90. 77 The ancients considered gold to be magical because it is impervious to rust and other forms of decay.

Brown, The Lost Symbol, p. 248. 78 Brown, Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy, p. 90. An agate was placed in the breastplate of

the Jewish High Priest and inscribed with the name of the tribe Naphtali (which was the Grand Master Hiram Abiff’s tribe). It is a symbol of strength and beauty, and was a stone of foundation. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 42. Agates have been associated with the moon and Zodiac sign Libra, and have been ascribed magical powers. Janice Bennett, St. Laurence and the Holy Grail: The Story of the Holy Grail of Valencia (San Francisco, Calif.: Ignatius Press, 2004), p. 178.

79 Brown, Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy, p. 90. A cube also symbolizes Mercury, i.e.,

truth. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 219. Appropriately, the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple was built in a cube because it housed the Perfect Truth who is Deity. Albert G. Mackey, The Symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols (Sioux Falls, S.D.: NuVision Publications, LLC, 2007), p. 126. The cube is a universal symbol of the sacred; when unfolded, it reveals a Greek cross. Milton A. Pottenger, Symbolism (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1994), pp. 99-100.

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make the descent into self and subsequently return to our family and friends with the precious contents of our search.80

III. ENOCH’S LEGACY Pike did not refer to the Bible in developing the Thirteenth Degree, and Philostorgius and the Talmud did not mention Enoch as part of their stories,81 but Pike must have known about the Biblical and Jewish Kabalistic stories of Enoch to reference the legend of Enoch.82 The Bible, Mormon scriptures, and Kabalistic texts all identify Enoch as the son of Jared, the sixth in descent from Adam.83 The story goes that while the world grew increasingly wicked as Adam’s posterity moved farther away from the Garden of Eden (one of the ultimate sites of in illo tempore), Enoch remained faithful to Deity and endeavored to lead others to Deity too.84 Deity rewarded Enoch’s commitment by transporting him in a vision onto a mountaintop where Deity’s Name was revealed to him.85 In his dream, he saw the same Divine Name inscribed on a cubical agate that was

80 “In the proper understanding, our secret vaults are like our concealed treasures; they lie beneath

temples which are not built by hands, and that which they contain is not the material Ark of a covenant passed away, but that which the ROYAL ARCH terms the ‘Ark of our salvation.’ It bears the true Mason to Eternal Mansions and the Everlasting Presence.” Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 2, p. 466.

81 Enoch is discussed at depth in the Sefer Ha-Zohar (“Book of Splendor”), a 13th Century Spanish

Kabalistic text, which is treated as one of Judaism’s most sacred texts, alongside the Torah and the Talmud. Gabriella Samuel, The Kabbalah Handbook: A Concise Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Penguin Books, 2007), p. 446.

82 Enoch was a favorite of both the Jewish Kabalists and the Hermeticists, who considered him an ideal

philosopher-king and a semi-Demiurge, one to reveal heavenly gnosis, then escape this material world and return to his celestial home. Philip S. Alexander, “From Son of Adam to Second God: Transformation of the Biblical Enoch” in Biblical Figures Outside the Bible, ed. Michael E. Stone and Theodore A. Bergren (Harrisburg, Penn.: Trinity Press International, 1998), pp. 113-118.

83 Holy Bible, Genesis 5:18-24; The Pearl of Great Price (Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints, 1979), Moses 6:21-7:69; The Book of Enoch, ed. R. H. Charles (Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1893), Section II, 37:1, p. 110. Enoch was translated directly to heaven without dying first. Howard Schwartz, Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 208, n. 38. The Kabalistic tradition says that Enoch was a shoemaker who took the name Metatron when he ascended to heaven. Idel Moshe, Kabbalah Eros (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 299, n. 67; Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religion, ed. David Shulman and Guy G. Stroumsa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 234, n. 72. In that celestial state, he was also known as the Angel of the Presence and Chief of the Celestial School. Waite, Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, p. 148.

84 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 7. Masonic tradition informs us that ancient Jewish leaders like

Enoch, Abraham, Moses and Solomon were instrumental in channeling the secret tradition in Israel. Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 1, p. 260. Enoch’s story stirs comparisons in theosophy. Ibid.

85 The summit was hidden in clouds and seemed to reach the stars. Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 7.

The topography prefigures Mount Sinai, where years later Moses would meet with Deity and receive the Decalogue inscribed on stone tablets. F.N. Peloubet and Amos R. Wells, Peloubet’s Select Notes on the International Sunday School Lessons (Boston, Mass.: W.A. Wilde Company, 1919), p. 62; Laura

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located in a subterranean vault, accessible only by nine descending arches. Enoch awoke from his dream and realized that he must put the dream into action.86 The Masonic legend continues by saying that Enoch enlisted the aid of his son, Methuselah, and they traveled to Canaan, where some of his relatives already lived. There they employed workmen to help them excavate nine apartments, one below the other, each roofed with an arch as he had seen in his vision. The topmost arch was crowned with a modest temple dedicated to the Great Architect of the Universe.87 He carved the ineffable Name into a bejeweled triangular gold plate, which he sank into a cube of agate. The cube was placed onto a pedestal of white alabaster, located in the lowest of the nine apartments. A steady stream of inflammable air flowed into the pedestal from a crevice in the rock, burning continually with a brilliant flame until it was discovered in Solomon’s time.88 Being underground, Enoch’s treasure was protected from the Great Flood because he covered the uppermost apartment with a stone, a great ring of iron, and the granite pavement of his temple. To preserve all knowledge of the arts and sciences lest they be lost in the Flood that he foresaw in a vision, Enoch erected two great columns upon a high hill. One column was made of brass, to resist water, and the other was made of granite, to resist fire. Onto the granite column were engraved hieroglyphic instructions how to locate the subterranean vault. Onto the brass column were inscribed the great truths known to the antediluvian Adepts.89 The granite column was swept away in the Floor, thus the vault’s location became lost, but the brass column and its message survived, to be studied by Moses. The Ineffable Name was lost until Deity revealed it to Moses in anticipation of bringing the Chosen Israelite People out of Egypt.90 Moses inscribed the same Ineffable Name upon another plate of gold, which he safeguarded in the Ark of the Covenant. The plate was later captured by unbelievers and they melted it down for its metallic value, thereby depriving the world of Deity’s Name in written form.91 Schlessinger and Stewart Vogel, The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God’s Law in Everyday Life (New York: Cliff Street Books, 1999), p. 15.

86 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 7. 87 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 7. 88 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 7. Deity wanted the divine light to be buried in Enoch’s time

because humanity was not prepared to use it for altruistic purposes. Nurho de Manhar, “The Sepher-Ha-Zohar; or, The Book of Light” in The Word, vol. 7, no. 1 (April 1908): 185.

89 Pike, Magnum Opus, pp. XIII . . . 7-8. The Kabalistic school reveres the Book of Enoch, which

records both Enoch’s dreams and the secret tradition originating with Adam. Waite, Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, p.p. 147-149.

90 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 8. 91 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 8.

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On a parallel track, oral knowledge of Deity’s Name had been preserved from the ancient mysteries, and it was passed down through the patriarchs and prophets until it was communicated to Solomon. This was significant, for Solomon lived during a time of polytheistic fervor in Israel and he had not been aware of the true name of Deity. He communicated it to King Hiram of Tyre and Hiram Abif, along with knowledge of Deity’s true nature, thereby replacing various competing polytheistic avenues toward truth with a single assured avenue to truth via Deity. The three grand masters preserved this sacred information amongst the three of them until Hiram Abif was murdered. From that tragic point onward, Deity’s sublime knowledge appeared lost forever.92 Thankfully, the discovery of Enoch’s underground vault provided Solomon with a second opportunity to learn how to pronounce Deity’s Name. Masonic tradition informs us that tomb robbers penetrated the vault not long after Adoniram and his companions retrieved the Tetragrammaton, and they broke the pedestal in an anxious search for monetary treasure. Their vandalism caused the eternal flame to erupt in an explosion destroying the vault and burying Enoch’s structure in even more rubble than before, concealing its location yet again. Solomon’s administrative justice center was eventually built, as planned, over the site, which further obscured the memory of its location.93 The privileged knowledge of Deity’s Name that was taken from the vault was quietly reserved for an esoteric few, the forebears of modern Freemasons.94 Enoch’s life is a study in wonder. He might seem lesser-known than Moses,95 but Deity regarded him as more pious than Moses, for Deity translated Enoch directly to heaven whereas Moses died and had to wait in paradise for his eventual resurrection.96 Like the ancients who felt wonder when they beheld the pyramids of Giza, Colossus of Rhodes, etc., Enoch felt wonder when he beheld the portal of heaven in his vision.97 Unlike the ancients who felt wonder when they gazed upon miraculous structures from the past, Enoch’s wonder was eschatological, a confident anticipation of blessings yet to come:

92 Pike, Magnum Opus, pp. XIII . . . 8-10. 93 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 12. 94 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 13. “This knowledge of God, so written there, and of which

Masonry in all ages has been the interpreter, is the MASTER MASON’S WORD.” Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 14.

95 Enoch only seems lesser-known because of the sparse references to him in the Bible. His character

was very familiar in the contemporary popular Semitic tradition. John L. McKenzie, Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Touchstone, 1995), p. 239. There are three known Books of Enoch, and at least two of them were known to early Christians, including Tertullian. Charles Frederick Nolloth, The Rise of the Christian Religion: A Study in Origins (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1917), pp. 73-74; Martin Hengel, The Septuagint as Christian Scripture: The Prehistory and the Problem of Its Canon (New York: T&T Clark International, 2004), pp. 54-56.

96 Donald Harmon Akenson, Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds

(Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p. 157. 97 The Book of Enoch, Section II, 34:1, p. 104.

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In the Hebrew Bible wonder was sometimes linked with fear, but such fear marked religious belief, rather than terror. More commonly the experience of wonder linked with expectation of the coming Messiah and hope for future redemption. Hosea 3:5; Micah 7:15; 7:17; 2 Esdras 13:30; Isaiah 52:15 and Zechariah 14:13 are all good examples of this kind of experience. The Book of Wisdom 5:2 is unusual in giving more what we might call a natural history of wonder, where wonder becomes associated with the continuous renewal and refashioning of the universe by God and wisdom. The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch 14:24) describes wonder in relation to experiences of God, but this is related to future hope.98

Enoch passed down the ancient mysteries as communicated to him by Deity; a novelist has suggested that this “divine handwriting” is still communicated from generation to generation via a cryptic human genome. In this sense, we can learn Enoch’s important message by pondering our own spiritual DNA.99 Such wonder necessarily focuses on our inner selves, for initiation into the deeper mysteries is only meaningful if we get past the outer appearances and ponder the inner realities.

IV. THE INITIATION PROCESS We become better men and better Freemasons as we embrace the Royal Arch degree, because wonder and initiation go hand-in-hand in developing healthy personalities.100 Both also occur incrementally: “Those who would enter the Temple must ascend by the steps of the Temple.”101 Whereas one normally thinks of climbing upward to enter sacred space, Adoniram and his companions were required to pass downward through nine archways before they could enter Enoch’s vault. Their pathway is indicative of the incremental steps typically associated with initiation. Pike explained further in the Lecture of the Degree:

Hence many Masons regard the Legend of this degree as but an allegory, representing the perpetuation of the knowledge of the true God by means of the Mysteries. By the subterranean vault they understand the place of initiation, which in the ancient ceremonies was generally underground. The Temple itself presented a symbolic image of the universe; and resembled in its arrangements all the Temples of such religions and worship, and has come down to us in Masonry; though the esoteric

98 Celia Deane-Drummond, Wonder and Wisdom: Conversations in Science, Spirituality, and Theology

(West Conshohocken, Penn.: Templeton Foundation Press, 2006), p. 135. 99 Christopher Forrest, The Genesis Code (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2007), p. 97. 100 See, e.g., Barbara Biber, Early Education and Psychological Development (New Haven, Conn.:

Yale University Press, 1984), p. 213. 101 Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 1, p. 394.

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meaning with which the numbers used by us are pregnant, is scarcely known to most of those who use them. Those numbers were especially employed, that had a reference to the Deity, represented His attributes, or figured in the framework of the world, in time and space, and formed more or less the basis of this frame-work. These numbers were universally regarded as sacred, being the expression of Order and Intelligence, the utterances of Divinity Himself.102

Pike used the Legend of Enoch’s legacy to impart important lessons about initiation, beginning with the deliberate choice of Enoch’s name:

Enoch (הנוד, Khanōc), we are told, walked with God three hundred years, after reaching the age of sixty-five – “walked with God, and he was no more, for God had taken him.” His name signified in the Hebrew, INITIATE or INITIATOR.103

If “knowledge is simply recollection,” then the initiatory process is a means of restoring what has been lost.104 An initiate is a person who has left an old way of life, made a new beginning and entered a new path of experience.105 “[T]he purpose of all initiation is to lift human consciousness from lower to higher levels by quickening the latent spiritual potentialities in man to their full extent through approximate discipline.”106 That path, says Plato, is to return in illo tempore, to the original pristine state wherein our souls originated.107 It is not a magic, automatic process; one must have a contrite heart and humble spirit.108 Freemasonry is no stranger to initiation into the ancient mysteries.109 The Royal Arch degree is a wholesale exercise in the initiation process:

102 Pike, Magnum Opus, p. XIII . . . 14. 103 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 210; Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 1, p. 261.

Enoch is named Edris in other ancient Semitic texts, suggesting someone who is erudite. Henry Rowlands, Mona Antiqua Restauranta: An Archǽlogical Discourse on the Antiquities, Natural and Historical, of the Isle of Anglesey, the Ancient Seat of the British Druids (London: J. Knox, 2nd ed. 1766), p. 30. From the Q’uran, the name Enoch means “to read or to study with attention” the books of one’s ancestors. Hutchens, A Bridge to Light, p. 90; Muhammad bin Khâvendshâh bin Mahmûd, The Rauzat-us-safa; or, Garden of Purity, Part I, Volume First, edit. F.F. Arbuthnot, trans. E. Rehatsek (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1891), p. 68.

104 Phaedo in The Works of Plato, ed. Irwin Edman (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1928), p. 129. 105 Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 1, pp. 248, 395. 106 Walter Leslie Wilmshurst, The Meaning of Masonry: The Deeper Symbolism of Freemasonry

(Charleston, S.Car.: Forgotten Books, 1947), p. 85. 107 “It was the end and design of initiation to restore the soul to that state, from whence it fell, as from

its native seat of perfection.” William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated, vol. 1 (London: Thomas Tegg & Son, 1837), p. 210.

108 Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, vol. 1, p. 250.

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Wherefore nothing forbids you to consider the whole legend of this Degree, like that of the Master’s, as allegory, representing the perpetuation of the knowledge of the True God in the sanctuaries of initiation. By the subterranean vault you may understand the places of initiation, which in the ancient ceremonies were generally under ground.110

Next to the family, a male “secret society” like Freemasonry is the most primitive and universal social institution. Setting aside the historical debate of what physical form Freemasonry possessed before the formation of the English Grand Lodge in 1717, the spiritual origin of Freemasonry arguably lies in the initiation ceremonies of antiquity.111 Freemasonry’s purpose, in this context, is – like Enoch in the Thirteenth Degree – to preserve, develop and transmit to posterity the civilization wrought by our ancestors and passed onto us.112 The rise of speculative Freemasonry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries coincided with a contemporary revival of interest in the ancient mysteries.113 It is perhaps not coincidental that some have attributed the source of inspiration from Freemasonry’s system of initiation to the ancient mystery rites, including those of Egypt:

Freemasonry as an institution is Isis, the mother of Mysteries, from whose dark womb the Initiates are born in the mystery of the second or philosophic birth. Thus all adepts, by virtue of their participation in the rites, are figuratively, at least, the Sons of Isis. As Isis is the widow, seeking to restore her lord, and to avenge his cruel murder, it follows that

109 See, e.g., George Oliver, The History of Initiation, in Twelve Lectures Comprising a Detailed

Account of the Rites and Ceremonies, Doctrines and Discipline, of All the Secret and Mysterious Institutions of the Ancient World (New York: Jno W. Leonard & Company, 1855). Masonry’s hermetic association with initiation is also long-standing. See, e.g., Mary Anne Atwood, Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery with a Dissertation on the More Celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers Being an Attempt Towards the Recovery of the Ancient Experiment of Nature (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1999).

110 Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 208. 111 Pound, “Lectures on the Philosophy of Masonry,” pp. 95-97. The rites typically featured ordeals, a

symbolic raising from death to life, and explanatory lectures. Ibid., pp. 97-98. “All preserve the memory of their origin in a tribe of kinsmen by the fiction of a brotherhood which they strive to make real by teaching and practice.” Ibid., p. 99.

112 Pound, “Lectures on the Philosophy of Masonry,” p. 100. 113 Manly P. Hall, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians (Los Angeles, Calif.: Philosophical Research

Society, Inc., 1965), p. 73; Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, p. 54. One of the most vigorous proponents of the link between Freemasonry and esoteric Egyptology was the Comte Cagliostro, a colorful Freemason, reputed charlatan, and purported member of the Illuminati, who generated widespread controversy and scandal before dying as a convicted heretic in a Papal prison. Hall, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 54; Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, pp. 69-72; Ridley, The Freemasons, pp. 123-125.

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all Master Masons or Master Builders, are widow’s sons. They are the offspring of the institution widowed by the loss of the living Word, and theirs is the eternal quest – they discover by becoming.114

Some esoteric scholars believe that the Egyptian mystery schools were the creators of the first organized initiatory programs, whose purpose was a systematic effort to realize our place in the universe according to Deity’s master scheme.115 Like today’s Freemasons, their initiates were inducted through a series of degrees,116 and they were required to memorize complicated rituals with dialogue, prayers and hand gestures.117 The Thirteenth Degree setting recalls the setting of the ancient initiation rites, which typically was a subterranean vault, to impress upon the initiate that the body is the sepulcher of the soul and that only true initiation can release the soul from darkness.118 Pike believed that all this was intended to communicate intimate details about Deity.119 Initiation into the ancient mysteries meant not only a recollection of “lost knowledge,” but also incorporation into a group of like-minded adherents. In the medieval precursor to speculative Masonry, several generations of stonemasons could work on a single medieval cathedral project. They typically banded together in semi-permanent communities that remained separate from other guilds and neighboring townsfolk. Outsiders soon learned it was useless to intrude on their affairs unless one was invited to join them.120 When the stonemasons were assigned to begin work at a new project, they selected a sufficient number of skilled workers, chose their own leaders (masters and wardens) and maintained a closed society, even with their families.121 One reason for this

114 Hall, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 69. Pike, Mackey and Oliver agree that Egyptian

rituals inspired some of the Blue Lodge rituals and symbols, particularly the Hiramic legend in the Master Mason degree because of its parallels to the Osiris legend. “It is, therefore, most interesting and fitting that the old secrets should be revived and Masonry rededicate itself to the high purpose for which it was originally devised.” Ibid., p. 80.

115 Lewis Spence, An Encyclopedia of Occultism (New York: Cosimo, 2006), p. 227. Like today’s

Masonic candidates, applicants for the Egyptian rites had to be male, freeborn, of good report, and sound mentally and physically. Hall, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, pp. 103-104.

116 Lewis Spence, The Mysteries of Egypt: Secret Rites and Traditions of the Nile (New York: Cosimo,

2007), p. 218. 117 Lewis Spence, The Occult Sciences in Atlantis (Pomeroy, Wash.: Health Research, 1976), p. 106. 118 Hall, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 104. After completing a satisfactory examination,

the initiate met a guardian who was intended to personify two great occult principles: spiritual truths of life are their own guardians, and one cannot learn more than his integrity allows. Ibid., p. 105.

119 “To communicate true and correct ideas in respect of the Deity was one chief object of the

mysteries.” Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 208. 120 Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, p. 12. 121 Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, p. 13. Jasper Ridley, The Freemasons: A History of the

World’s Most Powerful Secret Society (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001), pp. 1-8.

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insular lifestyle was that many of them were religious non-conformists, belonging to old associations that derived their philosophies from diverse pre-Christian sources. Physical persecutions and other unfortunate experiences had forced them to exercise discretion when discussing their beliefs and practices with outsiders, even though they continued to regularly recruited by the Christian Church in recognition of their advanced skills.122 Pike theorized privately in a letter to Brother Robert Freke Gould123 that speculative Freemasonry’s association with the hermetic mysteries came not from any direct influence by the medieval craft guilds but from an influx of circumspect alchemists and Rosicrucians who joined Eighteenth Century Masonic lodges in order to associate with each other publically without garnering unwelcome notoriety.124 They brought their symbols with them into the lodge, while keeping the hermetic meaning of those symbols to themselves.125 Such eminent English hermeticists as Elias Ashmole were held in high esteem by their Masonic brethren.126 Their undisputed effect upon the Craft supports the theory that the Hiramic legend is only marginal Biblical; it is more strongly tied to the

122 Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, pp. 13-20. There is a dearth of dispositive evidence that these

ancient societies actually preserved secrets from the pre-Christian mystery cults and conveyed them surreptitiously to the European Enlightenment era. Ibid., p.15. Some speculate that the 18th century Masonic rituals evolved from medieval guild dramas, including stories about Solomon’s temple. Ibid., p. 18. See also, e.g., Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Temple and The Lodge (New York: Arcade Publishing, Inc., 1989), p. 122; John Yarker, The Arcane Schools: A Review of Their Origin and Antiquity With a General History of Freemasonry and Its Relation to the Theosophic, Scientific and Philosophic Mysteries (London: William Tait, 1909), p. 447; and Frank C. Higgins, An Introduction to Masonic Archeology (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., 1993), p. 154.

123 Gould was a distinguished English soldier, barrister, Mason, historian and contemporary of Pike.

See, e.g., Robert Freke Gould, The Concise History of Freemasonry (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing, 1994) – a summation of his larger, multi-volume history of the Craft.

124 Because these groups had no organization of their own, they adopted Masonic rituals and customs

as a framework to meet openly, so they could work collaboratively to build a spiritual temple for the benefit of all humanity. Daniel Béresniak, Symbols of Freemasonry, trans. Ian Monk (Singapore: Assouline Publishing, 2000), p. 16.

125 Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, p. 30. Secret organizations with elaborate rituals and plush

settings were all the rage. Ibid., p. 58. So many elite rushed to join the fraternity that intellectuals had completely replaced all stonemasons in some 17th century English lodges. Ibid., p. 32. Sir Isaac Newton was one of the few notable holdouts. Ridley, The Freemasons, p. 23. Because of the prevailing Christian culture, these new Freemasons introduced Biblical symbols, such as Solomon’s temple, into the degrees instead of the classical trappings of the pre-Christian mystery cults. Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, pp. 34-37.

126 Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, pp. 31-32, 38-40, 54-58. One of the hermeticists’ visionary

leaders was Sir Francis Bacon. He advanced utopian and alchemical themes to promote the perfection of individuals and societies alike. See, e.g., Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis: or, Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians (Charleston, S.Car.: Forgotten Books, 2008). Bacon used many references from King Solomon in his seminal book, The New Atlantis, which helped to influence 17th century Freemasonry and inspire the formation of the Royal Society. Béresniak, Symbols of Freemasonry, p. 28. He became such an influence on the Craft that The New Atlantis is seen as “the key to the modern Rituals of Freemasonry.” Alfred Dodd, Francis Bacon’s Personal Life Story, vols. 1-2 (New York: Rider, 1986), p. 158.

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mystery cults of antiquity and their initiatory processes.127 Freemasonry’s core identity, therefore, may be tied to the wonder and initiatory process historically associated with the mystery schools that the Thirteenth Degree emulates for our benefit today.

V. CONCLUSION This is not a speculative, historical musing. Masonic scholar Jim Trotter says there is a genuine potential for individual transformation offered to every candidate for the Thirteenth Degree:

The great promise of the Degree is that when a person truly begins to experience his own spirituality, when one discovers the luminous pedestal with the cube of agate and the triangle of gold, a personal transformation takes place. We start to become different people – richer in spirit, more compassionate, more truly human.128

As we come ever closer to achieving the perfect élu status of the Fourteenth Degree, it is possible for us to become better, more authentic human beings through a humble self-exploration into the Divine Word incumbent within us. We discover that Word, and its inherent association with all the ultimate truths incumbent with Deity, in stages as we act upon our curious wonder about the ancient, eternal truths surrounding us.

127 “The story of Hiram is a timeless allegory – a key to the Christian mystery rather than the reverse.”

Hall, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, p. 40. 128 Jim Tressner, Vested in Glory (Anderson, S. Car.: Electric City Printing Co., 2000), p. 41.

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