Has anyone else ever noticed that once a thread reaches about 3 pages, it usually goes off topic? Reading back over it, I just thought it was
funny...everything from Freemasonry to sexism to Trotskyism to Egyptology to porn has been argued over. If someone were to introduce theories about
evolution and the effects of artificial turf on ground balls to centerfield, I'd say we'd just about covered it all.
Quickly back to the Egyptian stuff:
The only direct reference made to Thoth in regular Freemasonry that I'm aware of is in the 31° ritual, S.J.
This degree is based on the 124th Chapter of the ancient Egyptians' Papyrus of Ani, and Thoth is one of the characters in the degree ceremony.
Concerning Jahmun's question, the relation to Thoth to Hermes and/or Trismegistus still confuses historians. It is possible that these names/titles
alluded to an actual historical person who was later deified in the Greco-Egyptian cults, but it is also possible that his entire existence is
mythological. I tend to believe that Thoth-Hermes was probably a real person, as most myths begin with at least a grain of truth.
Some Masonic writers and scholars go to great lengths telling us about the Egyptian Mysteries (Pike, Mackey, Hall, Waite, and Buck fall into this
category), but, perhaps strangely, there is very little outright "Egyptianism" in the actual rituals of the fraternity. Excepting Pike's version of
the 31°, there is practically none at all, unless one includes the Egyptian Rite of Memphis and Oriental Rite of Mitzraim, both of which have been
tabled by regular Masonry.
Yet Pike spends about 300 pages total in Morals and Dogma elaborating on the Egyptian Mysteries, and comparing them to the rites of Solomonic Masonry,
and Mackey does basically the same in his Masonic Encyclopedia. I believe many of their analogies or more or less correct, but it would also be easy
for the non-Mason who reads these materials to draw false conclusions from them.
Fiat Lvx.
[edit on 18-8-2004 by Masonic Light]
) for everyone to believe the same thing as far as God is concerned. I still think it would foster
more thoughtful discussion, but hey, thats not your thing. 
