Masonic Textbook

Originally posted by JoshNorton

Originally posted by The GUT
Looking for the girl-plant-angel-pillar aspect I came across the following gem--pics and all:

Morals & Dogma

Pretty much first thing:

LUCIFER, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darknesss! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning!

Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual or selfish Souls ? Doubt it not!

Convenient of you to omit the sentence directly before your out-of-context quote...

The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth Degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer.

www.sacred-texts.com...

Okay, I went back and the pdf I linked doesn't have that statement directly above the "light-bringer" quote. Thus my confusion.

Do any of y'all know if Pike had any experience with what we generally call astral travel?

reply to post by JoshNorton

Thanks for picking those sections out for me. Fascinating reading and although not for me; a compelling and intelligent discourse for his (Pike's) belief.

Originally posted by The GUT
Okay, I went back and the pdf I linked doesn't have that statement directly above the "light-bringer" quote. Thus my confusion.

Not on page one, no. But in context, in your PDF, it's on page 212 (in Chapter 19).

Do any of y'all know if Pike had any experience with what we generally call astral travel?

No idea. Sorry. He did write a bit about alchemy, but I'm less familiar with those works.

Edit to add, I don't believe Pike ever wrote about what we'd consider paranormal or supernatural experiences. He was not a prophet; simply a well read man, relatively conversant in different philosophies and religions of the world, who tended to be a prolific writer. Not everything he wrote was correct; and he was misinformed in a few areas (primarily relating to a lineage of the Templars to modern Masonry), but it is interesting to read some of his stuff.

reply to post by The GUT

We do not undervalue the importance of any Truth. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by any one of any faith. We do not tell the Moslem that it is only important for him to believe that there is but one God, and wholly unessential whether Mahomet was His prophet. We do not tell the Hebrew that the Messiah whom he expects was born in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago; and that he is a heretic because he will not so believe. And as little do we tell the sincere Christian that Jesus of Nazareth was but a man like us, or His history but the unreal revival of an older legend. To do either is beyond our jurisdiction. Masonry, of no one age, belongs to all time; of no one religion, it finds its great truths in all.

To every Mason, there is a GOD; ONE, Supreme, Infinite in Goodness, Wisdom, Foresight, Justice, and Benevolence; Creator, Disposer, and Preserver of all things. How, or by what intermediates He creates and acts, and in what way He unfolds and manifests Himself, Masonry leaves to creeds and Religions to inquire.

To every Mason, the soul of man is immortal. Whether it emanates from and will return to God, and what its continued mode of existence hereafter, each judges for himself. Masonry was not made to settle that.

To every Mason, WISDOM or INTELLIGENCE, FORCE or STRENGTH, and HARMONY, or FITNESS and BEAUTY, are the Trinity of the attributes of God. With the subtleties of Philosophy concerning them Masonry does not meddle, nor decide as to the reality of the supposed Existences which are their Personifications: nor whether the Christian Trinity be such a personification, or a Reality of the gravest import and significance.

To every Mason, the Infinite Justice and Benevolence of God give ample assurance that Evil will ultimately be dethroned, and the Good, the True, and the Beautiful reign triumphant and eternal. It teaches, as it feels and knows, that Evil, and Pain, and Sorrow exist as part of a wise and beneficent plan, all the parts of which work together under God's eye to a result which shall be perfection. Whether the existence of evil is rightly explained in this creed or in that, by Typhon the Great Serpent, by Ahriman and his Armies of Wicked Spirits, by the Giants and Titans that war against Heaven, by the two co-existent Principles of Good and Evil, by Satan's temptation and the fall of Man, by Lok and the Serpent Fenris, it is beyond the domain of Masonry to decide, nor does it need to inquire. Nor is it within its Province to determine how the ultimate triumph of Light and Truth and Good, over Darkness and Error and Evil, is to be achieved; nor whether the Redeemer, looked and longed for by all nations, hath appeared in Judea, or is yet to come.

Morals & Dogma, Ch. XXVI, pp 524-525

Thanks to all who are taking the not-so-insignificant time to answer. Even Albert Pike himself showed up.

I do want to say that I totally realize that Albert Pike (the deceased one) doesn't exclusively speak for Masonry, but his knowledge and philosophy are generally germane to the issue I think.

It seems the alchemy aspect--now that you mention it, Josh--is pretty fascinating and maybe provides some opportunity for further research from any interested Masons:

nbeknownst to most Masons, many of the symbols found in symbolic, or “Blue Lodge” Masonry came to us from Alchemy.* In his book, “Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry”[4] , Albert Pike describes these relationships and states that “By this and many other proofs we know that the symbols of Freemasonry were introduced into it by the Hermetic philosophers of England…”[5].* Manly P. Hall in his work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, states, “…he [Hermes] was the author of the Masonic initiatory rituals…Nearly all of the Masonic symbols are Hermetic in character[6]”.* In spite of this, I was surprised to find a dearth of research regarding the relationship between Alchemy and Masonry.*
*
Since Albert Pike informs us of the strong connection in Blue Lodge Masonry with that of Alchemy, I wondered if that connection continued into the Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection, which in many ways is a continuation and completion of the Blue Lodge degrees.* In this paper we will survey the symbols of the Scottish Rite degrees from the 4th through the 14th to see if we can find any connection with the symbols of Alchemy.* My goal is twofold in doing this: first, to expose the reader to the connection between Alchemy and Freemasonry, and second to encourage other Masonic researchers to explore this very interesting and largely untapped area of study.* It should be noted that I am a Masonic researcher and not an Alchemist.* This paper is written from the viewpoint of that of a Masonic researcher[7].* Let us know explore the Lodge of Perfection in a hunt for Scottish Chemistry!
*
4th Degree
In the 4th degree we are introduced to the Kabbalah[8] and the tree of life.* Most students of the Kabbalah would recognize it as deriving from Jewish mysticism.* However, there is also a Hermetic Kabbalah which is strongly connected to alchemy.* Manley P. Hall states that the theories of the Kabbalah are inextricably interwoven with the tenets of alchemy, Hermeticism, Rosicruciansim and Freemasonry[9].* During the period of the open minded Renaissance Hermeticism and the Kabbalah became increasingly intertwined.* However, much of today’s Hermitic Kabbalah was made popular during the late 19th and early 20th century by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.*
The many aspects of Hermetic Kabbalah are too detailed for the scope of this paper, so a short outline will be given.* In Judaic Kabbalah, the 10 Sephiroth are understood to describe the 10 attributes of the Deity.* In Hermetic Kabbalah the 10 Sephiroth also pertain to the attributes of Deity, but they utilize different symbols to describe them.* The Hermetic system relates the 22 paths between the sephira to the 22 Hebrew letters, a color, a musical note (vibration), an odor and a Tarot card[10].* The Golden Dawn Hermetic system assigns astrological signs in the form of planets and specific meanings to each of the Sephiroth on the “body”.* The concept of the Tree of Life is long rooted in Alchemy; an early Alchemistical tree of life is shown in Figure 1.*
www.masonsoftexas.com...

Originally posted by Amaterasu
reply to post by ChungTsuU

 

I remember the Hidden Hand thread. It's gone?

Wow.

I had it bookmarked - it is still here in The Gray Area - called Window of Opportunity at this link:

www.abovetopsecret.com...&flagit=402958

reply to post by The GUT


Even before construction began on the temple, the area was considered holy. Out of respect for God, all of the stones used to build the temple walls were chiseled and formed to exacting specs at the quarry. This way, the stones slid perfectly into place as the walls were built without the noise generally encountered on such a project.

Originally posted by The GUT
So my question: Is the Supreme Architect different than Jehovah?

The GAOTU has as many names as there are faiths. None of them is more correct than the other. In my Lodge, the Master is Sikh, our Senior Deacon is Mormon, a Past Master is Jewish, the brethren include Catholics, Protestants of all stripes, Muslim and other faiths. We all work together in harmony and nobody's faith is taken as being of lesser importance or correctness than anyone else's.

HTH
Fitz

Originally posted by boncho

2. Is there ever discussion about different faiths in the lodges?

Nope. Politics are off-limits too. Oddly enough, professional sports are allowed. I guess nobody ever figured that'd become a topic so rife with antagonism.

reply to post by Fitzgibbon


what an honor! Someone found a way to drag Fitz out of the shadows!

Good to see you are still among the living.

Originally posted by network dude
reply to post by Fitzgibbon

 

what an honor! Someone found a way to drag Fitz out of the shadows!

Good to see you are still among the living.

Oh, I lurk güd.

I've been dropping in from time-to-time but most anything of consequence has already been answered so why waste phosphors?

And Lord don't I wish someone would teach you Yanks to spell honour the right way.

Originally posted by jerryk42

Originally posted by Amaterasu
reply to post by ChungTsuU

 

I remember the Hidden Hand thread. It's gone?

Wow.

I had it bookmarked - it is still here in The Gray Area - called Window of Opportunity at this link:

www.abovetopsecret.com...&flagit=402958

Thanks. Whew! I guess I misunderstood things. LOL!

I live next door to a worshipful master. I really can't see why people think that the mason's are up to no good. All this person does is attend meetings on Thursday nights.

Here is the real masonic conspiracy, when you go to the grocery store and you can't find any donuts or sweetrolls, drive past your local blue lodge, if there are cars there then it is meeting night and that's where all of the pastries went. You really can't trust us around baked goods...

As for the book, keep it if it has special meaning to you, otherwise contact your state's Grand Lodge, they may like to have it for their archives unless they already have one. To my knowlegde no "secret" masonic info has ever been printed in plain english for all to read, it would have been coded in some fashion. Anything that is in the book already exists on the internet, you just have to know the truth from the BS which of course is the real trick isn't it...

reply to post by AlbertPike


May this put an end to certain ignorant nutjob conspiracists on here







[Mod Edit - Replace unnecessary quote with Reply To tab]

reply to post by GoldenObserver


most free masons o that level are good people. masons build hospitals for kids (shriners) and are very active in their local communities. i dont know what the higher ups got going on. but it is my understanding the george washington was one. if its good enough for him its good enough for me.

WOW! This thread has really grown since I logged last ight. Thank you to all keeping it alive. I am still reading, and have found some more fairly interesting stuff that I will post soon (in my own wordes albeit it. hehe.) So everyone just hang tight for an hour or so. Thanks.

The Hour-Glass is an emblem of Human Life. Behold how swiftly the sands run and how rapidly our lives are drawing to a close! We cannot, without astonishment, behold the little particles which are contained in this machine; how they pass away almost imperceptibly, and yet yo or surprise, in the short space of an hour they are all exhausted. Thus wastes man. To-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; to-morrow, blossoms and bears his blushing honors thick upon him. The next day comes a frost which nips the shoot; and when he thinks his greatness is aspiring, he falls like autmn leaves, to enrich his mother Earth.

I find this to be absolutely beautiful, saying that just whenever we have become a master, we all fall down to become that which bore us.

It also speaks of the Scythe in the next part, stating it as

An emblem of time which cuts the brittle thread of life, and launches us into eternity.

and also that

We are cut down by the all-devouring Scythe of Time and gathered unto the land where our fathers have gone before us " that bourne whence no traveler returns."

It also has a load of explanations for how to carry out certain ceremonies if anyone has any certain one that theyd like to know, I can see if it is in here and post it.

edit on 6/15/2011 by GoldenObserver because: (no reason given)

reply to post by GoldenObserver


That passage was actually one of the best representations of human life I have read in awhile. Much better than most crap out there trying to sum up our existence.



Oh, and don't forget to close your tags. ex. [ ex ] Text [ /ex ]

The second part closes the quote.

I saw something odd today. I was driving down the interstate & saw a vehicle with a Freemason symbol on the tailgate. The window had a Dallas cowboy sticker, But it was upside down as if to look like a pentagram.

I don't know if anyone knows this or not, but they auctioned a copy of this book off on the following web page:

www.proxibid.com...

They also sell it on Amazon.com