Freemasonry -
A Perspective
by Paul Brunton
Taken
from "Perspectives" – The Timeless Way of Wisdom
Freemasonry: The roots of Freemasonry have been
attributed both by its own pioneers and by history to lie
embedded in ancient Egypt. The cultural connection of
ancient Egypt and ancient India is now slowly being
established; the philosophic and religious indebtedness of
the country of the Nile to the country of the Ganges is being
uncovered by history and archaeology. This esoteric system
admittedly once fulfilled a far loftier mission than it does
today and was therefore worked in an atmosphere of greater
secrecy. It was closely connected with religion, mysticism,
ethics, and philosophy. Even today we find that it still
possesses three progressive degrees of initiation, whose
names are drawn from the act of building: the "Entered
Apprentice," the "Craftsman," and the "Master Mason." The
first degree represents spiritual faculties just dawning; the
second degree represents those same faculties grown quite
active; the third degree represents the quest and the ultimate
discovery within himself of the true Self. If the earlier
degrees teach him how to behave towards others, the last
degree teaches him rightly how to behave towards himself.
For here his search ends in undergoing the mystical death of
the ego, which allows him to live in his own spiritual centre
henceforth. Whoever fulfils the Masonic rule of being "of
lawful age and well recommended" may then knock as "a poor
blind candidate" at the door of the Master's chamber for
admittance. The initiation of the novice into the first degree
of Masonry is symbolically performed while he is
half-clothed. He is then called an "Entered Apprentice." All
men throughout the world who sincerely and seriously adopt
religion because they apprehend a mystery to be concealed
behind the universe, thereby unconsciously enter this
degree. All religious men who live up to their ethical
obligation and thus make themselves worthy are eventually
passed into the second degree, that of "Fellow Craft." This
symbolizes the stage of mysticism wherein the seeking mind
passes half-way behind the symbol. It is the mystics who
consecrate their quest to inner contemplation within
themselves rather than in external churches or temples.
They
furnish from among their number the few who have discovered that
seance is the most powerful means of advancement and who are
raised to the third degree of a fully-robed "Master Mason." He
alone is given the clue whereby he may recover the "Lost Word"
of the true Self, the ultimate Reality, a secret now vanished
from the ken of the modern successors of Enoch and Hiram Abiff.
And he alone dons blue robes as a token of his universal
outlook-that same blue which is the colour of the cloudless
overarching sky that covers all creatures on the
planet. Apart from its use of the solar symbol, in this
highest grade, of the sun at noon as a sign that the Master will
work for the enlightenment of all, you will find that Masonry
has indicated its worship of Light by including the cock in its
ceremonial rites. For this is the bird which rises with the sun;
which, in fact, vigorously and loudly informs its little world
that the dawn is at hand and that the benign rays will soon be
shed upon it. back to top
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