THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
february 1917
volume 3 - number 2
THE INITIATORY RITES OF DRUIDISM
BY BRO. DUDLEY WRIGHT, EDITOR LONDON FREEMASON
THE mode of life adopted by the Druidical priests made easy
the transition from Pagan to Christian monasticism. To all intents and purposes
the Druids formed a Church and their ecclesiastical system seems to have been as
complete as any other systems of which records have been preserved, whether
Christian or non-Christian. The rank of the Arch, of Chief, Druid was that of
pontifex maximus, and, apparently, he held his position until death or
resignation, when his successor was elected in a manner similar to that in which
a pope at the present day is elected, although some writers assert that the Arch
Druid was elected annually. Caesar states that: "when the presulary dignity
becomes vacant by the head Druid's death, the next in dignity and reputation
succeeds; but, when there are equals in competition, election carries it."
Many Druids appear to have retired from the world and lived
a hermit existence, in order that they might acquire a greater reputation for
sanctity. Martin in his Description of the Western Isles has pointed out that in
his time, in the most unfrequented places of the Western Isles of Scotland,
there were still remaining the foundations of small circular houses, intended
evidently for the abode of one person only, to which were given the name of
"Druid's Houses" by the people of the country. Many of the Druids also appear to
have lived a communal life, uniting together in fraternities and dwelling near
the temples which they served, each temple requiring the services of a
considerable number of priests.
Ammianus of Marseilles describes them in the following
words:
"The Druids, men of polished parts, as the authority of
Pythagoras has decreed, affecting formed societies and sodalities, gave
themselves wholly to the contemplation of divine and hidden things, despising
all worldly enjoyments and confidently affirmed the souls of men to be
immortal."
Not a few, however, lived in a more public and secular
manner, attaching themselves to kindly courts and the residences of the noble
and wealthy. The Druids had thus a close affinity both with the monastic order
and religious congregations of the Church of Rome, known as the regular clergy,
and those living unrestricted by special vows, and known as the secular clergy.
The period of noviciate and the character of the training
of an aspirant to the Druidical priesthood was as lengthy and as rigorous as
that of an aspirant to membership of the Society of Jesus. It lasted for twenty
years, and, although the candidates were, in general, enrolled from the families
of nobles, many youths of other ranks in life also entered voluntarily upon the
noviciate, and, very frequently, boys were dedicated to the priestly life by
their parents from an early age.
The ceremony of initiation, so far as can be gathered from
the scanty authentic records available, was arduous and solemn. The aspirant
first took an oath not to reveal the mysteries into which he was about to be
initiated. He was then divested of his ordinary clothing and vested with a tri-coloured
robe of white blue, and green, as emblematic of light, truth and hope. Over this
was placed a white tunic. Both were made with full length openings in the front,
and, before the ceremony of initiation began, the candidate had to throw open
both tunic and robe, in order that the officiating priest might be assured that
he was a male.
The tonsure was one of the ceremonies connected with
initiation. As practiced in the Roman Church, the tonsure, the first of the four
minor Orders conferred upon aspirants to the priesthood, is undoubtedly a
Druidical survival. There is evidence of its practice in Ireland in A. D. 630,
but it does not appear to have become a custom in England until the latter part
of the eighth century. The tonsure was referred to by St. Patrick as "the
diabolical mark" and in Ireland it was known as "the tonsure of Simon the
Druid." It differed greatly from the modern form. All the hair in front of a
line drawn over the crown from ear to ear was shaved or clipped. All Druids wore
short hair, the laymen long; the Druids wore long beards, the laymen shaved the
whole of the face, with the exception of the upper lip. The tonsure was also
known in Wales as an initiatory rite. In the Welsh romances known as the
Mabinogion, we find, among the Brythons, a youth who wished to become one of
Arthur's knights whose allegiance was signified by the king, with his own hand,
cutting off his hair.
The initiation took place in a cave because of the legend
which existed that Enoch had deposited certain invaluable secrets in a
consecrated cavern deep in the bowels of the earth. There is still to be seen in
Denbighshire one of the caves in which Druidical initiations at one time took
place. After taking the oath, the candidate had to pass through the Tolmen, or
perforated stone, an act held to be the means of purging from sin and conveying
purity. All rocks containing an aperture, whether natural or artificial, were
held to be the means of conveying purification to the person passing through the
hole. At Bayon Manor, near Market Rasen, in Lincolnshire, there is a petra
ambrosiae, consisting of a gigantic upright stone resting upon another stone and
hollowed out so as to form an aperture sufficiently large for a man to pass
through. This stone is believed to have been used by the Druids in the
performance of their sacred rites. Some writers have imagined that the prophet
Isaiah was referring to a practice similar to this when he wrote (I, 19): "And
they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for
fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake
terribly the earth." All such orifices as these were consecrated with holy oil
and dedicated to religious uses, when the distinguished name of lapis ambrosius
was given to each.
The candidate was then placed in a chest or coffin, in
which he remained enclosed (apertures being made for air circulation) for three
days to represent death. From this chest he was liberated on the third day to
represent his restoration to life.
The sanctuary was then prepared for the further ceremonies
of the initiation, and the candidate, blindfolded, was introduced to the
assembled company during the chanting of a hymn to the sun and placed in the
charge of a professed Druid, another, at the same time, kindling the sacred
fire. Still blindfolded the candidate was taken on a circumambulation nine times
round the sanctuary in circles from east to west, starting at the south. The
procession was made to the accompaniment of a tumultuous clang of musical
instruments and of shouting and screaming and was followed by the administration
of a second oath, the violation of which rendered the individual liable to the
penalty of death.
Then followed a number of other ceremonies, which typified
the confinement of Noah in the Ark, the death of that patriarch, and other
incidents, the candidate eventually passing through a narrow avenue, guarded by
angry beasts, after which he was seized and borne to the water, symbolical of
the waters on which the Ark of Noah floated. In this water he was completely
immersed, and, on emerging from the water on to the bank on the side opposite to
that from which he had entered, he found himself in a blaze of light. He was
then presented to the Arch Druid, who, seated on his throne or chair of office,
explained to him the symbolical meaning of the various ceremonies through which
he had passed.
This ceremony of initiation was similar to that of the
Egyptian rites of Osiris, which was regarded as a descent into hell, a passage
through the infernal lake, followed by a landing on the Egyptian Isle of the
Blessed. By its means men were held to become more holy, just, and pure, and to
be delivered from all hazards, which would otherwise be impending. The cave in
which the aspirant was placed for meditation before he was permitted to
participate in the sacred mysteries was guarded by a representative of the
terrible divinity, Busnawr, who was armed with a naked sword, and whose
vindictive wrath, when aroused, was said to be such as to make earth, hell, and
even heaven itself, tremble.
Dionysius tells us that when the Druidesses celebrated the
mysteries of the great god, Hu the Mighty, they passed over an arm of the sea in
the dead of the night to ascertain smaller contiguous islets. The ship, or
vessel, in which they made the passage represented the Ark of the Deluge; the
arm of the sea, that of the waters of the flood; and the fabled Elysian island,
where the voyage terminated, shadowed out the Lunar White Island of the
ocean-girt summit of the Paradisiacal Ararat.
After the initiation was completed the candidate retired
into the forest where the period of his noviciate was spent, his time being
devoted to study and gymnastic exercises. There were various steps, or degrees,
and it was necessary for the Druid to pass through the degrees of Vate and Bard
before becoming a full-fledged Druid. Prior to the conferring of each degree the
candidate was confined within cromlechs without food for thirty-six hours. The
caves in which all the ceremonies were performed were like the Druidical temples
above-ground, circular in form.
The three degrees of Vate, Bard, and Druid were regarded as
equal in importance, though not in privilege, and they were distinct in purpose.
There is little doubt that knowledge was confined mainly, if not altogether, to
the professed Druids. Caesar says that they disputed largely upon subjects of
natural philosophy and instructed the youth of the land in the rudiments of
learning. By some writers the Druids are credited with a knowledge of the
telescope, though this opinion is based mainly upon the statement of Diodorus
Siculus, who says that on an island west of Celtae, the Druids brought the sun
and moon near to them. Hecataeus, however, informs us that they taught the
existence of lunar mountains. The fact that the milky way consisted of small
stars was known to the ancients is often adduced in support of the claim to
antiquity of the telescope. Idris, the giant, a pre-Christian astronomer, is
said to have pursued his study of the science from the apex of one of the
loftiest mountains in North Wales, which, in consequence, received the name
which it now bears--Cader Idris, or the Chair of Idris. Diodorus Siculus is also
responsible for the statement that the Saronides (Druids) were the Gaulish
philosophers and divines and were held in great veneration and that it was not
lawful to perform any sacrifices except in the presence of one of these
philosophers.
Mr. P. W. Joyce, in his Social History of Ancient Ireland,
says that in Pagan times the Druids were the exclusive possessors of whatever
learning was then known and combined in themselves all the learned professions,
being not only Druids or priests, but judges, prophets, historians, poets and
even physicians. He might have added: "and instructors of youth," since
education was entirely in their hands. Even St. Columba began his education
under a Druid and so great was the veneration paid to the Druids for the
knowledge they possessed that it became a kind of adage with respect to anything
that was deemed mysterious or beyond ordinary ken: "No one knows but God and the
holy Druids."
The Druids were the intermediaries between the people and
the spiritual world, and the people believed that their priests could protect
them from the malice of evilly-disposed spirits of every kind. The authority
possessed by the Druids is easily understood when it is remembered that they
were possessed of more knowledge and learning than any other class of men in the
country. "They were," says Rowlands in Mona Antiqua Restorata, "men of thought
and speculation, whose chief province was to enlarge the bounds of knowledge, as
their fellows were to do those of empire into what country or climate soever
they came."
Kings had each ever about them a Druid for prayer and
sacrifice, who was also a judge for determining controversies, although each
king had a civil judge besides. At the Court of Conchobar, King of Ulster, no
one had the right to speak before the Druid had spoken. Cathbu or Cathbad, a
Druid once attached to that Court, was accompanied by a hundred youths, students
of his art. After the introduction and adoption of Christianity the Druid was
succeeded by a bishop or priest, just as the Druidesses at Kildare were
succeeded by the Briggitine Nuns. Martin, who wrote his Description of the
Western Islands of Scotland in 1703, tells us that:
"Every great family of the Western Islands had a chief
Druid who foretold future events and decided all causes, civil and
ecclesiastical. It is reported of them that they wrought in the night time and
rested all day. Before the Britons engaged in battle the Chief Druid harangued
the army to excite their courage. He was placed on an eminence whence he
addressed himself to all standing about him, putting them in mind of all great
things that were performed by the valour of their ancestors, raised their hopes
with the noble rewards of honour and victory and dispelled their fears by all
the topics that natural courage could suggest. After this harangue the army gave
a general shout and then charged the enemy stoutly."
The position of Arch Druid was at one time held by
Divitiacus, the Eduan, the intimate acquaintance and friend of Caesar, who is
believed to have inspired the account of Druidism given by Caesar in De Bello
Gallico. The British Arch Druid is said to have had his residence in the Isle of
Anglesey, in or near to Llaniden. There the name of Tre'r Dryw, or Druidstown,
is still preserved and there are still there also some of the massive stone
structures which are invariably associated with Druidism. The Courts of the Arch
Druids were held at Drewson, or Druidstown. The principal seat of the French
Druids was at Chartres, the residence of the Gallic Arch Druid, at which place
also the annual convention of Gaulish and British Druids was held. There was
also a large Druidical settlement at Marseilles. It was here that Caesar, in
order to put an end to Druidism in Gaul, ordered the trees to be felled. . There
is no record of a head priest or Arch Druid amongst the Irish Druids.
Dr. John Jamieson, in his Historical Account of the Ancient
Culdees of Iona, which was published in 1870, says that twenty years previously
there was living in the parish of Moulim, an old man, who although very regular
in his devotions, never addressed the Supreme Being by any other title than that
of Arch Druid. He quotes this as an illustration of the firm hold which ancient
superstition takes of the mind.
Druids had the privilege of wearing six colours in their
robes and their tunics reached to their heels, while the tunics of others
reached only to the knees. Kings and queens reserved to themselves the right of
wearing robes of seven colours; lords and ladies, five; governors of fortresses,
four; young gentlemen of quality, three; soldiers, two; and the common people,
one. When the Druids were officiating in their priestly capacity, they wore each
a white robe, emblematic of truth and holiness as well as of the sun. When
officiating as a judge, the Druid wore two white robes, fastened with a girdle,
surmounted by his Druid's egg encased in gold, and wore round his neck the
breastplate of judgment, which was supposed to press upon his breast should he
give utterance to a false or corrupt judgment. A golden tiara was upon his head
and two official rings on his right hand fingers. On ordinary occasions the cap
worn by the Druid had on the front a golden representation of the sun under a
half moon of silver, supported by two Druids, one at each cusp, in an inclined
posture.
The mode of excommunication was to expose the erring member
to a naked weapon. The Bards had a special ceremony for the degradation of their
convicted brethren. It took place at a Gorsedd when the assembled Bards placed
their caps on their heads. One deputed for the office unsheathed his sword,
uplifted it and named the delinquent aloud three times, adding, on the last
occasion the words: "The sword is naked against him." After these words were
pronounced the offender was expelled, never to be re-admitted, and he became
known as "a man deprived of privilege and exposed to warfare."
----o----
MASONRY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
BY BRO. J.W. NORWOOD, KENTUCKY
MUCH has been said and written about Freemasonry among the
Indians, the Arabs, the Chinese, the Australians and even the Africans. The
recognition of Masonic signs and the use of various Masonic symbols in the rites
of these people have given color to the supposition that they had Masonry, not
of the sort we moderns can recognize as such to be sure, but sufficient to
convince students that "the landmarks" are there.
If by Freemasonry we mean merely the grand lodge system
established in 1717, then all these tales of white Freemasons saving their lives
among savages or in strange countries by the use of Masonic signs, mean nothing.
But if the legends of our Order have any significance whatever, then Freemasonry
is very ancient though it has been arranged and rearranged in the form of rites
and degrees many times. And if this is true, that no man can say when or where
it first began, then it is not folly to investigate the evolution of what we now
term Freemasonry. Stanley in Africa, travelers in Australia, shipwrecked sailors
on the coast of Arabia, have been reported as meeting with primitive
Freemasonry.
The Chinese have frequently been referred to as having a
rite they claim to be the most ancient on earth. Chinese classics abound in
references to the square and compasses used speculatively. And as often denials
have come from Masonic notables, declaring it could not be so.
Here is an anecdote that may illustrate why students of
Freemasonry are not so sure the Chinese may not have what they claim. In San
Francisco there is a lodge of what is popularly called the "Chinese Freemasons."
Needless to say they do not themselves call it so, though they recognize kinship
with the great fraternity.
A number of years ago, the writer had a conversation with a
gentleman who had traveled extensively in this country, Alaska and Mexico. He
had visited this lodge of "Chinese Freemasons." He was admitted in company with
a friend, editor of a daily paper and a 32d Scottish Rite Mason, who merely
vouched for the man as a Mason.
My informant stated that he saw the opening and closing in
three degrees but no initiatory ceremonies. Aside from the general disposition
and number of officers, he did not observe much that reminded him of our
Masonry.
I asked him about the signs given in the three degrees. He
arose and proceeded to give me the signs as he declared the Chinese made them.
They were identical with those of the three degrees save that they were given
with two hands where we give them with one. There were no due guards. My friend
was astonished that he had overlooked this fact. He was no student. He was not a
close observer.
He did remark that his Scottish Rite friend had told him
the grand hailing sign was the same with ours but the words accompanying it were
different and sounded like those words Jesus uttered on the cross and which have
been a puzzle to linguists--"Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabacthani." The Chinese
translated them "Brother, Brother, has thou forsaken me?" They declared that
they were not Chinese or even Sanskrit. No one could say whence they originated,
but they had come down from time immemorial.
A number of years ago, the Masonic Home Journal reported an
instance of "Chinese Masonry" according to which a mandarin had captured some
white prisoners, including an English general who made the sign. He was
recognized by the Mandarin and advanced upon the five points. He was well
treated.
In Louisville, Kentucky, the writer once had the pleasure
of seeing a young Korean about to return to his country as a Christian
missionary, raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. When called upon for
remarks, he said that he had wanted to become a Mason in order to surprise his
father and brothers in Korea, for his family had been Masons for thousands of
years. Their system and rite differed, but the Masonry was there.
If we begin with the formation of the modern Grand Lodge
system of government in London, 1717, and trace backward, we will find many
curious things connected with that era which cannot be relegated to the rubbish
by contemptuous or skeptical writers.
Nothing has been more clearly proven than that one source
of the rite then formed by Drs. Anderson, Desaguilers and others, was the
operative gild.
These gilds can trace their history back through the middle
ages to ancient Rome and Greece, when they were connected with various
mysteries, as in the case of the builders of Solomon's Temple, who were actual
Tyrians and built similar temples throughout Asia Minor. They were under the
jurisdiction of the Dionysian priesthood then as their successors were governed
by the clergy during Christian times.
But there was another source from which Freemasonry drew
its inspiration--the Hermetic philosophy. The "Hermeticists," whether
Astrologers, Alchemists, Rosicrucians, Theosophists or Kabbalists, used the same
symbols or many of them, and explained them in much the same way as the ancient
Chinese, the Egyptians and Hindus.
Prior to the "Revival" of 1717, this "Hermetic" element is
to be found giving expression to itself in Elias Ashmole's "Astrologers" on the
"esoteric" side and to the "Royal Society" on the exoteric. To both of these
associations and their members, closely affiliated with the "Masons Company" in
London at that time, the subsequent Revival owed much. The idea of the founders
of modern Masonry in 1717, seems to have been to divest the degrees of all
mysterious terms and ambiguous language, make it universal and open to all men
of average intellect, so that a common platform could be established upon which
men of all creeds could stand without being diverted by too much study of
inessentials.
As Dr. Charles Merz has recently suggested in his excellent
little booklet, "The House of Solomon," the Rosicrucian movement of Andrea
seemed to have been the inspiration of the English forerunners of the Masonic
system of 1717. Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis" had a powerful influence upon the
Elizabethan age because of his description of "The House of Solomon" on Bensalem
island.
But before Francis Bacon's time, there were other ideals
written about Solomon's Temple. The "Mystics" and "Hermetics" of the Christian
era find their parallels in similar philosophers in all ages.
Perhaps no more striking instance showing the connection
between the gilds and philosophical societies can be found than in the use of
the two pillars represented as standing before the Temple by both. The legends
connected with these pillars should alone be sufficient to convince one of their
antiquity, even had we not the evidence left by the gilds in Christian
Cathedrals and pagan temples back into prehistoric times. The Totem poles of
savage rites today are survivals of this ancient custom and from the Totem pole
our modern pillars doubtless sprang.
To the student and scientific observer, Freemasonry is an
evolution. Because it is a "progressive science," many have imagined that any
rearrangement of its degrees, its symbols or its ceremonies would destroy the
"landmarks." Such a suspicion does little credit to one's understanding of
Freemasonry or its spirit. The landmarks are the tenets of Freemasonry--not some
peculiar form of ceremony.
From the signs of recognition, the symbols by which certain
primitive facts in nature were preserved in a "universal language" among early
peoples, to our modern use of them even while so few understand or care about
their meaning, is a long step.
It is not to be expected that a primitive people possessing
these but not the standards of education of the more enlightened races, should
have kept pace with modern research and progress in civilization.
As a nation evolves so does its scientific, religious, and
philosophical standards. Freemasonry, the repository of truth as understood by
its votaries, naturally undergoes variation in form according to the deposit
made in its archives. One system can no more hope to become the dictator of
other systems than one lamp can hope to shine all other lamps out of existence.
Like Christianity, which some of the early Christian
Fathers declared had existed from time immemorial and long before the advent of
the Great Master whose name they adopted, Freemasonry is a thing of the heart
and mind which has also existed from time immemorial.
It cannot be confined within arbitrary jurisdictions. The
most that our modern system can hope to do is to clear away the rubbish from our
speculative lodges and say, "This is the system of degrees we will recognize as
Freemasonry and this alone, for here we have some approach to a standard of form
and ceremony. All others we will not call Freemasonry."
In Orthodox Jewish circles, the Rabbis are almost as much
opposed to Freemasonry as the Roman Church, though for a different reason.
To them it is too much like their own rituals, symbols and
ceremonies--too much like taking sacred things and imitating them.
The Jewish rituals have in them the elements of the Masonic
but applied to religious and racial uses entirely.
Take the ceremony of laying on the tphillin or "phylactery"
as the Bible puts it. There one may find the "Word," the "Substitute," the "Ark"
the sign of the Fellowcraft, and even the "flight of winding stairs" of fifteen
steps, together with much more pertaining to the Masonic degrees. The three
lights and the Master's sign are to be found in another ceremony and so one
might continue through these ancient Mosaic ceremonies and duplicate practically
everything to be found in Masonic ritual.
But even here we must go back to Egypt where Moses was
educated to discover the origin of these things. There the "Holy Royal Arch" is
no less prominent than the very sign of the Fellowcraft above alluded to. Egypt
has left the records of a Masonry where may be found all our signs and most of
our words.
The writer is acquainted with a gentleman who many years
ago spent some time in Palestine and Arabia in Masonic research. His description
of his own initiation into what the Arabians claim to be a Freemasonry as old as
the pyramids, embraced certain signs, and simple dogmas, exactly like those of
our Masonry. The rite was much simpler. There was no splendid regalia, but the
initiates of the Arabic degrees keep their obligations to the letter and lay
down their lives if need be, for a brother.
Another very profitable field of research for those who are
interested in studying the evolution of this thing we now call Freemasonry is to
be found in philology--study of word derivations. One is astounded at the almost
universal dispersion of certain well known Masonic terms, never used in any
other connection.
The word "Jehovah" for example is discovered to be
practically world wide and age old. Its pronunciation differs, but not the
"landmarks" by which it may be identified. The Jewish JHVH or YHWH, is the same
as the "Jah" whom the Phoenician father-in-law of Moses worshiped and served as
priest. It is identical with the Roman JOVE, or Yowe. The Greek IAO, the Druid
HU, the Chinese YAO and the seven vowels of India and Egypt, find repetition
among American Indians and in African and Australian cults.
So HIRAM (Hebrew Ch'Huram) goes back to the ancient name
for LIGHT as world wide as the pillars of Hermes.
And John is to be seen in the Etruscan Janus, whose temple
consisted of these two pillars; in the Chaldean Ea-n whom the Greeks called
Oahnnes and in other names of "gods."
Such studies invariably convince the open minded, that
while rituals and ceremonies undergo many changes in the course of evolution,
the teachings inculcated have never undergone material change because they are
the result of profound research by the world's greatest masters of science and
philosophy.
The speculative or spiritual use of the square and
compasses is the same today as when the Chinese sages urged statesmen and those
who sought knowledge to use them for a nobler purpose than the operative Mason.
The philosophers and fathers of Masonry used the Masonic
symbols as BUILDERS and the craft has always been the BUILDERS craft. Only when
we desert the plan outlined for BUILDING the temple of Humanity will we infringe
the "landmarks" which are the same today as thousands of years ago. Methods of
building and styles of architecture may and will change. The material changes
with every age and we hope gets better. But the injunction to first make each
part perfect and fit for the temple of the whole, stands as true today as when
the science of architecture was first discovered.
When we arbitrarily dismiss the use of Masonic signs and
symbols by others than regular Freemasons from mind, let us not forget that they
are the common possession of "Negro Masonry" and various unrecognized rites
today we deem "spurious" or "clandestine." Dr. Oliver was accustomed to dub the
Masonry of the ancients as "spurious," but where there is something "spurious"
it must of necessity follow that there is a "true" and "regular." Unless there
existed an "authentic" rite, there could be no imitator.
----o----
"WHENCE CAME YOU?"
Daily this question is asked by Masons without the
slightest thought as to its real meaning. It is fitting that the answer we make
to it in the lodge is well nigh unintelligible, for it is about as intelligible
as any ever given it or as probably ever will be given it. Who can answer the
question "Whence came you?" Who has ever answered it ? Who will ever answer it ?
Equally baffling and profound is that companion question, familiar in some
jurisdictions, "Whither art thou bound?" Equally an enigma is the answer we give
it. Simple as these questions appear, they search every nook and cranny and
sound every depth of every philosophy, every mythology, every theology, and
every religion that has ever been propounded anywhere by anybody at any time to
explain human life. They allude to the problems of the origin and destiny of
mankind; they lie at the foundation of all the thinking and of all the
activities of man except such as are concerned with the purely utilitarian
question "What shall we eat and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" All our better
impulses, all our loftier aspirations, all our faiths, all our longing for and
striving after a nobler state of existence, either in this or a future life, are
but attempts to answer these two questions. They are the supreme questions which
men have been asking themselves and each other ever since men were able to think
and to talk, and they are the questions which men will continue to ask oftenest
and most anxiously until the time when we are promised that we shall know even
as we are known. It is thus that study and reflection bring out the beauty and
the profound significance of the simplest of Masonic formulae. --Bro. O. D.
Street, Alabama.
----o----
THE HEART OF GOD
O great heart of God
Once vague and lost to me,
Why do I throb with your throb tonight,
In this land, eternity?
O little heart of God
Sweet intruding stranger,
You are laughing in my human breast,
A Christ-child in a manger.
--Vachel Lindsay.
----o----
THE IMMEASURABLE
We have no pleasure in thinking of a benevolence that is
unmeasured by its works. Love is inexhaustible, and if its estate is wasted, its
granary emptied, still cheers and enriches, and the man, though he sleep, seems
to purify the air, and his house to adorn the landscape and strengthen the laws.
People always recognize this difference. We know who is benevolent by quite
other means than the amount of subscriptions to soup societies.
--Emerson.
----o----
THE FELLOWSHIP OF MASONRY
BY BRO. JOHN LEWIN MCLEISH, OHIO
AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE HYDE PARK MASONIC CLUB
MASONRY is an earnest fellowship of tried and true men,
cognizant of human failures in the past, conscious of human limitations in the
present, and animated by the loftiest human aspirations for the future. That
Mason who best understands the real, the esoteric meaning of our gentle
philosophy, is best equipped to further the highest ideals of brotherly love,
relief and truth, for which Masonry stands.
The sleeping giant of Masonry is awakening at last. The
Spirit of Masonry is permeating the Mighty Fellowship, arousing them to the call
of humanity in a time of trial, the like of which this generation of the Sons of
Men had never thought to face.
Amidst stress and storm, in the olden days, when men
harbored suspicion and hate, and Nations knew not Peace, nor Brotherly Love, nor
Divine Truth, sprang the Spirit of Masonry to evolve a philosophy of Moral and
Social Virtues which should cement the Sons of Men of diverse Nations by
unbreakable bonds of Fellowship.
For centuries, the propagation of a Secret Doctrine, "older
than the oldest Church, more enduring than the most ancient Religion," slowly
spread, girdling the globe, gathering into its Great Brotherhood the very best
of every civilization until today', when it stands a Mighty Force, well equipped
to properly fight the battles of Humanity, fearless in its sublime principles,
and assured of ultimate achievement of its highest ideals, because of its
practical application of that Great Masonic Dogma, the Fatherhood of God and the
Brotherhood of Man. Its very vitality is dependent absolutely upon unfaltering
Faith in the Grand Architect of the Universe, cemented by those ties of true
Masonic Fellowship quite unbreakable even in death.
It is fortunate that this is so. New problems today
confront the Sons of Men. Mighty issues must be faced by the Nations of the
World including our own. Ours the task to minister to the peoples of Europe,
emerging supine from the dread cataclysm of War. We must meet their pressing
need and extend the hand of true Masonic Fellowship the underlying principle of
which is Masonic Charity. We are one of the World's Great Forces ever struggling
along a common highway of Human Utilitarianism. There are others less
constructive. That particular Force which proves itself best fitted to cope with
the new needs of Humankind, will longest endure. Gauging future probabilities by
past performances, this Masonry of ours will not be found wanting.
Let us consider for a moment the strength of the Mighty
Fellowship of which it is our privilege to form a component part.
In the United States we number nearly two million brethren
of forty-nine Sovereign Grand Lodges. The very smallest of these in our Federal
District has jurisdiction over thirty lodges. In England the Grand Lodge has
subordinate 2578 lodges. In Canada, eight Grand Lodges guide the destiny of more
than 100,000 Masons. In Germany too are eight Grand Lodges, in South America
six, in Australia six, in India five, in the West Indies three, in Mexico,
Liberia, Egypt, Central America, Hungary, Servia, France and Italy one each. Our
craft is numerically strong in Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Portugal. From
such figures you will perceive the Universality of the Great Brotherhood, sense
its wondrous potentiality for good, as the lines of Fellowship are drawn closer,
ever closer, a happening sure to come with the termination of the present World
War.
One of our greatest weaknesses, is the failure of many
Masons, through indifference, lack of time,--environment,--or opportunity, to
familiarize themselves with the glorious history and traditions of an Order
whose main motif has been the making of Better Men and in consequence a Better
Humanity during the centuries of its existence.
There are those raised to the sublime degree of Master
Mason, and hurried through the higher degrees of the Scottish or the York Rites,
who glean but the slightest knowledge of the history and meaning of Masonry.
Proudly they wear the emblems of our Order, with a dim conception that they
stand for something intangible, that through force of our numbers they demand
respect, and cannot but give them a somewhat superior standing in the mass. Ask
these brethren to explain the symbolism of the emblems, or put to them the
pointed questions: "What is Masonry doing today? What does it stand for? What
has it ever done?" They are lost for reply. They do not know.
For each individual Brother, Masonry is what he makes it.
None of its deeper philosophy will unfold itself to his ken, without individual
effort. Once in his life, to him individually is imparted the instruction of the
Worshipful Master. To him is given an enactment of the Solomonic and Hiramic
legends so beautifully set forth in our Ritualistic Drama. Much or little of the
strange ceremonies performed for his enlightenment he may grasp. For some, the
little that they carry from the lodgeroom on the night of their "raising," is
indeed of small value. As well expect a candidate, rushed through the thirty-two
degrees of the Scottish Rite in the few days alloted the Annual Reunion, to
grasp the full beauty, the hidden meanings and real philosophy of that Ancient
and Accepted Ritual unless later, he shall follow up the lessons hurriedly
hinted at with a thoughtful reading of the classic "MORALS AND DOGMA," of Albert
Pike. or a less pretentious manual of instruction.
Although I take it for granted most of you are more or less
familiar with the splendid history of our Fellowship, a brief reference to the
history of Masonry from its beginning may not prove unwelcome. The arduous
labors of thoughtful Masonic students collaborating in groups like the Ars
Quatuor Coronati Lodge of London, the Lodge of Research of Leicestershire,
England, our National Masonic Research Society of Iowa, and the Cincinnati
Masonic Study School--has once for all dispelled any lurking doubts entertained
as to the true Antiquity of Masonry.
Let the Father of Masonic Philosophy, Albert Pike, impart
to you his conception of Freemasonry:
"It began to shape itself in my intellectual vision into
something more imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed
to me like the Pyramids in their loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers
may be hidden for the enlightenment of coming generations, the Sacred Books of
the Egyptians, so long lost to the world: like the Sphynx half buried in the
desert. . . In its Symbolism which, and its Spirit of Brotherhood are, its
essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world's living religions.
It has the symbols and doctrines which, older than himself, Zarathrustra
inculcated, and it seemed to me a spectacle sublime, yet pitiful . . the Ancient
Faith of our Ancestors, holding out to the world its symbols once so eloquent,
and mutely and in vain asking for an interpreter. . . And so I came at last to
see that the true greatness and majesty of Freemasonry consist in its
proprietorship of these and its other symbols: and that its symbolism is its
soul."
History shows clearly close connection between the Faiths
and Philosophies of widely separated peoples. This is due to the fact that human
nature never changes. It is the same now as it was in the prepyramidal days of
ancient Egypt. Now, even as then, Man is groping blindly yet none the less
determinedly in his endless Quest for Truth.
In the long ago, before the age of books, Man expressed
himself in Architecture through the use of various symbols, as the Swastika of
the Chaldees, the Triangle of the Egyptians, the Triple Tau of the Hebrews, the
Cross of the Christians, the Square, Compasses, Plumb, Level and Circle of the
Architects, blood brothers of the Accepted Masons.
In 1818 an archeologist, Giovanni Belzoni undertook the
excavation of the Tombs of the Kings at Biban-el-Maluk, on the outskirts of what
was once the thriving and populous City of Thebes. The result of his efforts was
to establish the existence of Masonry among the ancient Egyptians; a Masonry
working upon the same basic principles as our Modern Masonic Philosophy.
Some of Belzoni's most convincing "finds" were in the Hall
of Beauties, a stone chamber 20 feet by 14 feet in the tomb of Pharaoh Osiris.
The walls were profusely adorned with painted pictures in relief, the old
hieroglyphic symbol-writing of ancient Egypt which has thrown much light upon
the customs and manners of antiquity. Belzoni's discoveries established that the
original form of the Egyptian Masonic Apron was triangular: that the triangular
and serpent aprons were exclusively royal: that this tomb of Pharaoh Osiris was
dedicated to the Masonic Mysteries blended and united with emblems of
discoveries, inventions and sciences in general, progressively as they took
place: that Freemasonry in the earlier ages was very different from what it is
now, and that at the time of Pharaoh Osiris, it had attained to a grandeur
unknown in Europe.
Later discoveries in Egypt, as the finding of Masonic
Emblems in the foundations of the Obelisk confirmed Belzoni's claim that Masonry
was an Existent Fellowship in Ancient Egypt. On this point one of our greatest
Ohio Masons, the late Enoch T. Carson, has written:
"Masonic Archeologists, and students of its history and
mysteries, are not startled at these discoveries. They know the Order is of
great antiquity. The general doctrinal features, . . its cosmopolite character,
its recognition and teaching of the Universal Brotherhood of Men, are
substantially the same today as they were in the remote ages of antiquity. Its
particular ritualistic ceremonies have undergone many and very great changes.
These have been modified to a greater or lesser extent to correspond with the
wants and tastes of particular nationalities. . . Those who believe that our
Masonic Institution had no existence anterior to 1717 are literary knaves and
dunces. . . Several learned works have been written to prove that Masonry sprung
from, or is a continuation of the Ancient Egyptian Mysteries or Osiris Worship
in a modified form. . . To the student of history, its origin is lost in the
remotest ages of antiquity: but its principles and doctrines are fresh and
grateful to the moral sensibilities of true humanity in whatever clime they may
be promulgated, even as they were in the Poets' Golden Age, when Humanity was a
Universal Brotherhood." . . This from so profound an authority as was Bro.
Carson.
The acceptance of the Egyptian Origin of Freemasonry makes
it easier for us to understand its transmission to the Hebrews after the
Captivity and its spread through subsequent civilizations. Like all philosophic
peoples, the Egyptians believed in a life after death. To them Death meant the
DAWNING OF A SOUL. The very network of their drama of Faith based on the coming,
death and resurrection of Osiris, is strangely suggestive of a certain
impressive lesson taught in one of our sublime degrees today.
It is well known that the Hebrews drew the inspiration for
much of their philosophy from Egypt. In their own version of the old, old story,
tradition has woven a beautiful legend of a certain widow's son, all centering
about the greatest world event of King Solomon's time, the building of the
temple on Mount Moriah.
Nor did the spread of Egyptian influence end with the
Hebrews. We can find traces of it in the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece, and in
those of Syria and Persia. All are possessors of a similar legend of a death and
a resurrection. And about each one of the diverse Dramas of Faith is a Code of
Morality, veiled in symbolism and protected by the secret signs and words of
explanation possessed only by the initiate. Tolerant of the contemporary beliefs
of the Profane, the primitive Masonic Mysteries under other names, drew into the
Great Fellowship of Antiquity, many eager souls of many nations questing LIGHT.
We come now to the borderland between Ancient and Modern
Masonry.
In its various ramifications, the Secret Doctrine was
carried by the Tyrians from Mount Moriah where they had participated in the
building of King Solomon's Temple, back to their homeland. They who had had a
hand in the most stupendous architectural undertaking of ancient times, now
formed themselves into a Society known as the Dionysian Architects.
Presently the sway of Rome began to extend itself over the
ancient world. The Roman legions came to Tyre. With them they took back to the
City of the Seven Hills, many of those skilled workmen who had developed
Architecture to a high degree until then not dreamed of in Rome. In the home of
the Caesars they imparted their wondrous skill to others and in time an Order
akin to their own, The Collegia sprang into being. These too were fraternities
of skilled artificers closely correlated, and protected by the same Secret
System as their instructors. A somewhat significant characteristic of each of
these Roman Collegia was the fact that each had its Master, its Wardens, a
Secretary and a Treasurer, and a Quorum of three, as a requirement to meeting.
The Square, the Plumb, the Level, the Cube, the Compasses and the Circle were
symbolic emblems of the Roman Builders. Secrecy was a keynote of their
organization.
In the days when Christianity was forbidden Heresy in
still-pagan Rome, many of The Collegia became affiliated with the strange new
Cult. For a time, the Emperor Diocletian purposely permitted himself to be blind
to their departure from the ancient Faith to that of the Nazarene. When four of
their most influential members refused to erect a statue to the God Aesculapius,
Diocletian inaugurated a vigorous campaign for their undoing. Four of the
Masters and one Apprentice suffered a horrible death. It is these Four who today
are gratefully remembered by the Craftsmen of Europe, as our First Masonic
Martyrs. After them is named the greatest Lodge of Research in the world, the
Quatuor Coronati of London.
Such of the brethren of the Collegia as escaped fled to an
impregnable refuge on Lake Como. Here they kept their secret organization alive
perpetuating it as the Comacine Gild which flourished during the Dark Ages.
After Charlemagne, when the spread of Christianity led to
an immense revival in building as a fine art, expressing itself in the erection
of great Cathedrals, the Comacines followed in the wake of the Clergy, availing
themselves of their ancient privileges as Free Men to go whither they might
desire.
Out of their wanderings resulted the Cathedral Builders or
Free Masons--the old Operatives--who traveled from city to city, from nation to
nation, welcomed by all and recognized as the only Gilds quite competent to
express the Spirit of the Times in speaking stone. Their organization was that
of Lodges, with a Master, Fellowcrafts and Apprentices.
Apprentices were required to serve seven years before they
might become Fellowcrafts. Then there was due examination and only such as were
found duly and truly prepared, worthy and well-qualified were passed. Another
characteristic was that each Mason had his own individual mark. Many of these
you may see today in some of the great Cathedrals of Europe.
Perhaps I can best explain the great dependence of
Freemasons upon Symbolic Expression by following the example of Ossian Lang and
quoting from that masterly Chapter in Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame." It takes its
title, "THIS WILL KILL THAT," from the gloom of one of its leading characters,
the Archdeacon, as he contrasts a crudely printed book, one of the first of its
kind, with the towers and gargoyle-decorated walls of the Church, supreme
consummation of Masons' handiwork, to gloomily exclaim as he points to the
printed page, "This will kill that." Says Victor Hugo:
"The human race has had two books, two registers, two
testaments-- Architecture and Printing--the Bible of Stone, and the Bible of
Paper. Up to the time of Gutenberg, Architecture was the chief and universal
mode of writing. In those days if a man was born a poet, he turned architect.
GENIUS, scattered among the masses,--kept down on all sides by
feudality,--escaped by way of Architecture, and its Iliads took the form of
Cathedrals. From the moment that printing was discovered, architecture gradually
lost its virility, declined and became denuded. Being no longer looked upon as
the one all-embracing sovereign and enslaving art, architecture lost its power
of retaining others in its service. Carving became Sculpture,--Imagery,
Painting,--the Canon, Music. It was like the dismemberment of an Empire on the
death of its Alexander,--each province making itself a kingdom."
While Masonry expressed itself in the handiwork of the
Compagnons as our craftsmen were called in France, of the Comacines in Italy,
and the Vehmgerichte in Germany, Gothic Architecture springing up in England
after the Norman Conquest in 1066, gave an equal degree of prosperity to the
Freemasons there. And as early as 1600 it was quite common in England for
Operative Lodges to admit Speculative members.
Although engaged in the service of the Church the
Freemasons did not even in medieval days wholly approve of the Church. Upon some
of the highest cornices of their handiwork they have indelibly cartooned this
contempt. For example Findel says: "In the St. Sebaldus Church of Nurembourg, is
a carving showing a nun in the embrace of a monk. In Strassburg an Ass is
reading Mass at an altar. In Mecklenburg may be seen priests grinding dogmas out
of a gristmill, and the Apostles in well-known Masonic attitudes. At Brandenburg
you may see a fox in priestly robes preaching to a flock of geese."
With the Reformation came a distinct break between Church
and Freemasonry.
A direct off-shoot of the traveling Freemasons were City
Gilds which embodied much of the philosophy, and some of the brotherhood
features, of our Order. Still they were quite distinct. They sometimes worked
for the Freemasons. To enter the older and more artistic fraternity they must
prove possessed of unusual skill. There can be no doubt of our direct descent
from the medieval craftsmen of whose splendid symbolism I have tried to give a
glimpse. Says Joseph Fort Newton in his classic of the Blue Lodge:
"Masonry was then at the zenith of its power: in its full
splendor: the Lion of the tribe of Judah its symbol, strength, wisdom and beauty
its ideals. Its motto "to be faithful to God and the Government." Its mission to
lend itself to the public good and fraternal Charity. Keeper of an ancient and
high tradition, it was a refuge for the oppressed, and a teacher of art and
morality to mankind."
It was when the Freemasons took Liberty for a slogan that
the Church looked askance. In the more Catholic countries Freemasonry was
frowned upon.
Newton stresses the fact that membership in the old
Operative Lodges implied "honesty, trustfulness, fidelity, chastity and
temperance: Fealty to the brotherhood: Regard for Secrecy: Reverence in God."
The organization of the lodges was perfect. The Master's
word was Law. They had a distinctive uniform--a rather picturesque crew with
skin-tight leather breeches, high boots, dark tunics and peaked hats: for arms
short swords and a heavy walking stick.
It is a disputed point as to how many degrees the Operative
Masons had. This much we know. Their work was simpler, less formal than it was
after becoming Speculative.
The gradual acceptance into the Order of men of prominence,
influence, intellectuality and wealth, marks the evolution into Modern Masonry
which took place in the year 1717, on St. John's day. In time the purely
Speculative Masons outnumbered the older Operatives. At first the Operatives
were differentiated by the title of Freemasons, the Speculatives by the name of
Accepted Masons. Their union in 1717 explains our latterday nomenclature F. & A.
M.
As the Age of Man's Self-Expression in Buildings of Stone
Waned, and Freemasons no longer wrought in the language of Symbolic Carving,
their successors clung to the old traditions and applied the centuries-old
philosophy handed down from the days of Ancient Egypt by word of mouth, to the
Building of Spiritual Temples, each man being his own Architect therefor.
It was the custom in those early days of Speculative
Masonry for lodges to meet in taverns, and so the first four lodges assembling
to form the First Grand Lodge of England, were those that met at "The Goose and
Gridiron Ale House in St. Paul's Churchyard; The Crown Alehouse in Parker's
Lane; The Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden and The Rummer and Grape Tavern."
In those days the tavern was a most important place in city
life. Bishop Earle a writer of the 17th century says aptly: "Taverns are the
busy man's recreation, the idle man's business, the melancholy man's sanctuary,
and the stranger's welcome."
Some of the most eminent men of the day, nobles, gentlemen,
editors, poets and philosophers foregathered at these taverns "the broachers of
more news than hogsheads, more jests than news." As Macauley truly puts it, "The
Coffee House was the Londoner's home and those who wished to find a gentleman,
commonly asked not whether he lived in Fleet Street or Chancery Lane, but
whether he frequented The Grecian or The Rainbow."
An eminently fitting place at that time for the meetings of
a Masonic Lodge which in the early days numbered among the brethren many of the
regular patrons of these old London Landmarks.
A very interesting description of London Taverns and
Masonry is to be found in Vol. XIX Ars Quatuor Coronati Researches.
From now on, Speculative Masonry becomes the only Masonry
we know-- an organization of worthy men, humanitarian in their sympathies, moral
in their Code, practicing brotherly love, relief and truth, the three cardinal
principles of Masonic Fellowship.
The example of Merrie England was followed by other lands.
Grand Lodges had their being in Ireland in 1729, Scotland 1736, Berlin 1744,
France 1736 and so on through the Universal Empire of Freemasonry.
In America the first Charter was issued to a Deputy
Provincial Grand Master for New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1730. One
of our early historic lodges met at the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston. It was
here the brethren of St. Andrew's planned and carried out the Boston Tea Party.
When we cast aside the yoke of England, our Lodges forsook
all obedience to England's Grand Lodge. Each State formed its own Masonic
Sovereignty. With the exception of the Anti-Masonic agitation sweeping the
country in the middle twenties, Masonry has made a steady advance.
Now has it occurred to you to wonder why our Brotherhood
has withstood the storm and stress of all time, why it has drawn into its
membership some of the best of every generation of the Sons of Men ? Does not
Albert Pike explain it when he says:
"MASONRY ALONE preaches TOLERATION, the right of Man to
abide by his own Faith, the right of all States to govern themselves. . . It
rebukes alike the monarch who seeks to extend his dominions by Conquest, the
Church that claims the right to suppress Heresy by fire and steel, and the
Confederation of States that insist on maintaining a union by force and
restoring Brotherhood by slaughter and subjugation."
Masonry has been variously defined. With Bro. Newton I
rather prefer the German definition:
"MASONRY is the activity of closely united men, who,
employing symbolical forms borrowed principally from the mason's trade, and from
architecture, work for the welfare of mankind, striving morally to ennoble
themselves, and others, and thereby to bring about a universal league of
mankind, which they aspire to exhibit even now on a small scale."
Our Masonic Ideal is growing more and more humanitarian. We
are face to face with the realization that in a measure we are directly
responsible for Man's well or ill being.
More and more the deeper Masonic Thinkers are awakening to
the fact that if Masonry would hold its own as a World-Force, it must exert its
great influence and strength in the Arena of World Politics. Conditions have not
yet come to a point in this country to compel Masons to have part actively in
politics as such. And yet, all other things being equal, I would lay it down as
an unwritten law implied by our obligations, when Brother Masons are Candidates
for Office, Always give them the preference with your Ballot before other men.
Only so may the Craft withstand the growing encroachments of Clericalism upon
our daily life and ideals and most upon our American Political Life.
Under this phase our Latin American Brethren have blazed
the trail. They through united action drove the hated Spanish Inquisition from
the shores of the New World. In Mexico, Masons since 1833 have had their own
particular platform, later formulated as the Laws of Reform into the
Constitution of 1857, that same Constitution for which Madero gave his life, for
which Carranza is fighting now. Social Service is another latter day call upon
the craft. In some cities, Masonic Social Service has been developed to the
highest degree of efficiency.
He who would best serve Masonry must be tireless in his
efforts. Maintain close connection with your Lodge; Make the visiting stranger
feel at home; Aid the Master in devising ways and means to vary the monotony of
the ceaseless grinding of our Degree Mills, endless repetition, an unavoidable
consequence nowadays because of the Wave of Masonic Enthusiasm overspreading the
country. If you would better fit yourself for the Fellowship of Freemasonry as
an Active Worker, inform yourself of its splendid traditions, its history, aims,
and present day activities.
All this is possible through our readable Masonic
Magazines, and periodicals for those of you pressed for time, and the weightier
tomes of Masonic Lore for the Booklover. You will soon learn there is much that
we must do. We Masons are just finding ourselves.
I might consume hours telling of the problems to he met.
Perhaps most of you know better than I many of them now staring us in the face.
Signs of Unrest are all about us. How to meet new issues, new conditions, Masons
may find by keeping in close contact with their Lodges, their Chapters, their
Masonic Clubs and subsidiary organizations where the best of the brethren meet
to take council together, and plan for the future, while showing an unrelaxing
interest in the present.
There is much more to Masonry than the continuous
repetition of Ritualism. While that has its function, in reminding us of the
Great Philosophy which has successfully weathered the storms of centuries, and
contributed its quota to the making of Better Men, Squarer Men, Truer Men, yet
it has failed utterly and its beauty and rhythmic charm has had no meaning to
him who came merely to be raised from a dead level to a living perpendicular, if
he passes out again to the Profane, to flaunt his emblem proudly, while
altogether out of touch with the Brotherhood, with the lodge, with himself--a
Button Mason indeed, who comes no more to lodge unless it be to dine.
There is no more splendid Fellowship than that of
Masonry--the glorious interlacing Fellowship of Man with the Great Architect of
the Universe, the invisible, incorporeal ONE GOD--and next the Fellowship of Man
with Men, the mutual recognition of Brotherhood. Such a Fellowship expresses
both human ideals and spiritual aspirations.
All through the long centuries Masonry has borne the Secret
Doctrine of Fellowship teaching Man to live in harmony with Man.
I have spoken of the Great Quest all Masons have made, all
Masons are making, that steady secret search which some have found, and some
have not, the goal.
To each man is the Secret Doctrine unraveled insofar as he
senses his proximity to his God, his brotherly responsibility for his kind.
WHEN IS A MAN A MASON ?
Find the answer in that Blue Lodge Classic, The Builders,
by Bro. Joseph Fort Newton:
"When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the
far horizon with a sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and
yet have faith, hope and courage . . which is the root of every virtue. When he
knows that down in his heart, every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as
diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive and to love
his fellow-man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrow, yea,
even in their sins, knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.
When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all, to keep
friends with himself. . . When he can be happy and highminded amid the meaner
drudgeries of life. . . When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and
no hand seeks his aid without response. . . When he knows how to pray, how to
love, how to hope. . . When he has kept faith with himself with his fellowman,
with his God: in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song, . .
glad to live, but not afraid to die. . Such a man has found the ONLY REAL SECRET
OF MASONRY, and THE ONE which it is trying to give all the world."
----o----
"SIT LUX"
"'Let there be light ! the great Creator spoke,
And at the summons slumbering nature woke,
While from the east the primal morning broke.
Back rolled the curtains of the night,
And earth rejoiced to see the light.
"'Let there be light ! through boundless realms of space
Beneath its touch arise new forms of grace;
Warmth, life, and beauty with its beams keep pace.
Where e'er it shines, with fresh delight
All things reflect the genial light.
"'Let there be light! the Master's lips proclaim,
And heart and hand unite in glad acclaim
To hail th' enrollment of a brother's name.
While he beholds with ravished sight
The glories of the perfect light.
"'Let there be light! and let the Bible's glow
Pervade our thoughts--through all our actions show--
Around our hearts its warming influence throw.
So shall our steps be led aright,
If guided by that holy light.
" 'Let there be light! though we see dimly here,
The shining gates are ever drawing near,
And send their glory down our pathway drear.
Beyond--shall heaven our eyes requite
With its divine, transcendant light.' "
--Thomas W. Davis, Mass.
----o----
THE BASIS OF BROTHERHOOD
It is not possible to create a true and genuine Brotherhood
upon any theory of the baseness of human nature. There can be no real
Brotherhood without mutual regard, good opinion and esteem, and mutual allowance
for faults and failings. It is those only who learn habitually to think better
of each other, and who look habitually for the good that is in each other, and
who allow and overlook the evil, who can be Brethren one of the other, in any
true sense.--Albert Pike.
----o----
DR. BUCK -- A MILITANT MASON
BY BRO. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, IOWA
TAPS are sounded all too often in our noble army of
Builders, as one by one our veteran leaders and students pass into "the Eternal
East." Few names are more widely known in our Fraternity, and none more highly
honored, than that of Dr. J.D. Buck, whose death at the mellow age of
seventy-eight takes from us a man distinguished alike in Medicine and in
Masonry, as indefatigable in his studentship as he was tireless in his
benevolence. He was a man of fine character, of forthright intellect, faithful
and true in all the fellowships of life, respected as a citizen, beloved as a
friend, honored as a Mason; and if we were asked to sum up his long life in a
single phrase it would not be hard to find-- the search for truth and the
service of mankind.
Self-made and self-trained, he had an insatiable thirst for
knowledge, and, his mind, far-ranging by nature, journeyed into many a replete
field of research in quest of truth -- passing through more than one phase
betimes, as he advanced from system to system in his pilgrimage. Original
without being creative, what it lacked in orderliness it made up in the vigor
and daring with which it dealt with first principles and ultimate issues in
science, philosophy, economics and religion--as witness the names and number of
his published works. What his final conclusions were may be found, no doubt, in
the book which he left unfinished, and we are sure it was written in that style
virile and direct, touched at times with beauty and fire, which is familiar to
all who have followed his pen.
Truly it was a great privilege to have carried an open mind
and a kind heart over so long a span of years, watching the revolutionary
changes of thought and life between 1838 and 1916. Better still, our Brother
filled his years to the brim with fruitful labors as a citizen, a scientist, a
teacher, and a friend of his race, leaving the world better than he found it,
helping forward every good cause. Here follows a brief sketch of his life
wherein the leading facts are recited, which his Brethren will want to know:
Dr. J.D. Buck was born in Fredonia, N. Y., Nov. 20, 1838.
His early education was obtained at Belvidere Academy, Belvidere, Ill., to which
place his parents had removed. Later he attended the Janesville, Wis., Academy.
The early death of his father made it necessary for him to quit school and
assume the responsibility of the bread winner for the family, at an age when
most boys are in high school. His work at bookkeeping was stopped at the age of
seventeen, because of failing health; and fearing lung trouble he took to the
pine woods of Michigan. He worked at lumbering and swung an ax during the
summer. In the winter he taught school, and studied along those fundamental
scientific lines which later served to distinguish his work as original in
medicine as well as in the field of general literature.
At the age of 23 he enlisted, at the first call for Civil
War' Volunteers, in Merrill's Horse, Company H., a regiment recruited at Battle
Creek, Mich. Later his health failed, and for three months he lay in the
hospital at Camp Benton, Mo., from which point he was honorably discharged and
sent home. On return of his health, he again taught school in the winter, and
worked as a master carpenter during the summer, in this way not only aiding the
support of his mother and in the discharge of her responsibilities but he began
the study of medicine with Dr. Smith Rogers at Battle Creek, Mich., later
attending Hahnemann Medical College at Chicago, and graduated in 1864 from the
Cleveland Medical College.
In October, 1865, he was married to Melissa Clough at his
old home and place of birth, in Fredonia, N.Y. In 1866 Dr. Buck was made
instructor in Physiology and Histology in his Alma Mater at Cleveland, receiving
no remuneration at that time nor at any time during forty years of teaching
medicine in Cleveland and later in Cincinnati, as this was before the days of
endowed medical schools and state medical departments connected with the
universities. Notwithstanding the call to duty in teaching medicine, the demands
upon him ever increased, and the rare judgment he brought to bear upon his
cases, slowly and surely, made of him the reliable physician and that rare
jewel, a sympathetic consultant, to whom the profession long continued to turn
in times of doubt and difficulty.
In August, 1870, Dr. Buck removed to Cincinnati. In 1872 he
called the meeting of physicians which, at Dr. Pulte's office in Cincinnati,
resulted in the founding of Pulte Medical College of which Dr. Buck was the
Registrar and Professor of Physiology from its organization to 1880. He was then
made Dean and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine which position he
held almost up to the time, a few years ago, when the Pulte Medical College was
absorbed by the Ohio State University.
Some twenty years ago he took up the study of psychology as
a basis for his work in medicine in the department of nervous and mental
diseases, to which department he was made Professor in Pulte Medieal College. As
a part of his study he made a thorough and exhaustive investigation of hypnotism
and spiritualism, and from a purely scientific standpoint concluded that they
were both destructive in their very nature and tendency, and therefore not to be
made the basis of either the teaching or the cure of nervous or mental troubles.
Pursuing his search, but ever mindful of his duty to his
profession, he went from the philosophy of DesCarte and of Schopenhauer to the
Vedas of Old India, in the search for the kind of knowledge which would best aid
man to help himself. That he found something others, equally earnest, have
missed may be understood by reading his first book, "The Study of Man," or any
one of the other volumes coming from his pen.
While for the past year he was not actively in the practice
of medicine, he has been putting in some spare time on another book dealing with
that ever present problem of economics, but the shadow of death has dimmed the
light which would have been thrown upon the topic by his handling of the
material.
"To be a good man and true" is the first great lesson a man
should learn, and over 40 years of being just that in example, Dr. Buck won the
right to lay down the precept. This he has done in the kindliest manner possible
in the ethical teachings which abound in all his books, and his frequent essays
on ethics, economics and other timely topics attest the vigor of his mind, the
kindness of his heart and the bigness of his soul.
Dr. Buck was an Ex-President and has been a member of the
Cincinnati Literary Club for 44 years, and was devoted to its work and its
traditions. He was President of the Am. Section of the Theosophical Society
during that period in his career when investigating the theosophical teachings.
He was repeatedly honored by his local and State and National Medical Societies,
and was an Ex-President of the Am. Institute of Medicine.
There is no need to add that Dr. Buck was an active and
influential member of every Rite of our historic Order, holding the highest rank
both in the esteem of his Brethren and in the gift of the fraternity --including
the honorary Thirty-Third Degree of the Scottish Rite in its Northern
Jurisdiction. Indeed, he was a recognized leader of a definite school of Masonic
thought and propaganda; and while we have never been able to agree with all the
conclusions of the school which he represented, we are none the less
appreciative of its services to the Craft--knowing that Truth is larger than the
formula of any one school or of all schools put together. Surely, by this time
we ought to be able to hold differing views without marring our unity of spirit,
never forgetting that without charity no truth is of any real worth.
Dr. Buck was a militant Mason. There are certain
fundamental, far-shining principles which he held it to be "The Genius of
Freemasonry" to defend and its mission to expound, exemplify and make
prevail--such principles as lighted the way of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower
who, defiant alike of arbitrary civil power and insolent ecclesiastical
authority, set sail on a wintry sea to found "a church without a bishop and a
state without a king." Those principles, as he knew, are one with the creative
spirit and prophecy of our Republic, and it was therefore that his Masonry, on
one side, was a spiritual patriotism in the exposition of which he was truly and
impressively eloquent. In behalf of free thought, free conscience, and the
sovereign right of man to worship in the way his heart loves best, he was a
crusader--as every Mason must be, albeit some of us may use a harp instead of a
hammer for a weapon.
By the same token, he was sleeplessly alert lest these
principles, so vital to human welfare, be compromised or undermined by subtle,
sinister influences always seeking their overthrow. Like many others, he felt
the danger in our midst of a venerable Hierarchy alien to the genius of the
republic and foreign to its ideal, and tirelessly active with a cunning learned
through long ages, taking advantage of the liberty of our land to undo, slowly
and imperceptibly, its institutions. Such a disaster is possible, but hardly
probable; and if others do not share his fear in the same degree, it
nevertheless behooves us to be awake, knowing that eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty, and that government without tyranny--like religion without
superstition--is a hard-won, precious inheritance of our humanity. Not all may
be able to adopt the method of Dr. Buck, but he is a poor patriot, and a poorer
Mason, who does not honor his motive, his courage, and his earnestness.
Not a few felt that Dr. Buck was in some degree
antagonistic to the Christian religion. Not so. He was profoundly religious, but
his insight went deeper than dogmas, down to the primitive fires of faith that
are forever burning, and to the permanent fountains of hope that forever flow.
He knew that if all temples were swept away, all creeds lost, and all rites
forgotten, the heroic, creative soul of man would rise radiant and new-born,
uplifting new temples and dictating new sacred books. He saw that if the
Christian records were destroyed, the spirit of Christ and his basic truths
would abide, because they are a part of the order of the world. As we may read,
in the introduction to his "Mystic Masonry," perhaps his most widely read book:
"What, then, shall we conclude regarding the real genius of
Christianity? Is it all a fable, put forth and kept alive by designing men, to
support their pretensions to authority? Are historical facts and personal
biography alone entitled to credit? While everlasting principles, Divine
'Beneficence, and the laying down of one's life for another are of no account?
Is that which has inspired the hopes and brightened the lives of the downtrodden
and despairing for ages a mere fancy, a designing lie? Tear every shred of
history from the life of Christ today, and prove beyond all controversy that he
never existed, and Humanity from its heart-of-hearts, would create him again
tomorrow and justify the creation by every intuition of the human soul and by
every need of the daily life of man. The historical contention might be given
up, ignored, and the whole character genius, and mission of Jesus, the Christ,
be none the |
