The Occult Renaissance Church of Rome

by Michael Hoffman

  According to Pico, God did not create man in his own image, as the Catholic orthodox theologians stated; rather, he gave man the faculty to create his own image. This extolling of man’s creative faculties, of his chosen freedom, has led many scholars to identify within the concept of “free will,” which distinguishes man from the rest of humanity, the most important concept in the thought of Pico about man.

  But what interests us most of all for the purposes of this essay, is the ethical thought of Pico, and without doubt the Oration can be defined as the quintessence of Pico’s ethicalmoral speculation. The fundamental similarity between the three fundamental stages on man’s path of accession to the supreme good, found in the Oration and the three degrees on the Masonic path to perfection of the individual (Entered Apprentice, Fellow of the Craft and Master Mason), is one of the key points of our belief in the influence of Pico’s ethics, on Masonic philosophy.

  If, in fact for Pico, the first of his three stages is the “purification of vices with the help of ethics,” for Freemasonry the first of its three degrees is characterized by “principles of morality and virtue,” and we can therefore, rightly define it as a degree of ethics. The second stage of Pico’s path is the “perfection of reason, by means of dialect, and natural philosophy,” which corresponds to the second Masonic degree, that of Fellow of the Craft. In fact we see, in the Ceremony of Passing from the degree of Entered Apprentice, to that of Fellow of the Craft, the Worshipful Master turns to the Brother and says: “as you learned the principles of moral Truth and Virtue in the previous degree, now you may extend your enquiries to the hidden mysteries of Nature and Science.”

  Therefore in this second degree, the Freemason perfects his consciousness, through “human reason.” The third and final stage of Pico’s ethical thought, contained in the Oration, is the consciousness of the Divine, which corresponds to the third degree of Freemasonry, that of Master Mason, which concludes the esoteric path of Freemasonry. In fact, we read in the ritual, that the Worshipful Master says to the Brother: “Advancing further, still guiding your progress by the principles of moral truth, may you be steered into the second degree, to see the intellectual faculty of it, and track your development in it, through the paths of celestial science, unto the throne of God himself.” And he continues, “Allow me now to point out to you, that the light of a Master Mason is darkness visible, which serves only to express that shadow, which shrouds future prospects. That is the mysterious veil, which the eye of human reason cannot penetrate without the help of the Light, which comes from above.”

  …We can conclude that, just as in Masonic thought, ethics, the philosophy of nature, and the approach to the Divine represent the principal degrees of consciousness in Pico’s ethics, through which man must pass. A first preparatory stage of consciousness, represented by Ethics, that is moral science, requires that man be set free by a passion for pleasure. For Pico, it is only through Ethics, that the destruction of men between different states may be ended, and long-lasting peace be established on earth.

  In the next stage, the Philosophia Moralis gives way to the Philosophia Naturalis, which leads man along the road to consciousness of reality. It is through philosophy that the secrets of nature are revealed to man, and this is the principle function of philosophy. The final stage is that in which human reasoning, prepared and educated by philosophy, will reveal a consciousness of the deepest secrets, concerning the system of the universe.

  Who, in philosophy, has represented better than Pico, the fundamental Masonic allegory of coarse stone, after hard work, being turned into smooth stone? Throughout the Oration, man is portrayed, as moulder of himself, in an absolutely arbitrary way…

  For the Mirandolian in fact, man’s happiness does not come from the possession of truth, but solely from pursuit of the typical platonic concept of Eros.

  For Pico and for the Freemason, it is not possessing the truth that is important, but its pursuit, the enquiry that we undertake, in order to investigate it, and it is in this extreme display of free will, that one’s spiritual power is demonstrated. In light of this, any constraint in religion according to Pico, is absolutely reprehensible, and the Libertas credendi is essential, because true faith can only be borne out of freedom.

  According to Pico, “even man’s sin does not constitute, an ineradicable defect in his nature, because in his nature one can only see the correlative and the opposite of something different, and superior. It was necessary that man be capable of sin, so that he may become capable of good.” Pico’s fundamental concept is that man, in good as in evil, is never concluded; he may never rest secure in good, and is never in the power of evil without hope of redemption.

  Lives, which lead to good and evil, are never precluded from one another, and the decision lies in his own hands: thus, according to a follower of Pico, man’s sin is not merely a fault, on the contrary it is an expression of that force which makes the same man capable of doing good. And his freedom may demonstrate all its power only when he is capable of moulding his own existence, and to do this, it is necessary to pass through the various stages of existence. 2

  1 Venzi is, as of this writing, Grand Master of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy. The Regular Grand Lodge of Italy is affiliated with the United Grand Lodge of England and Scotland, and the Grand Orient of Italy.

  2 www.cornerstonesociety.com (2004).

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