The Gods of the Lodge

by Reginald Haupt Jr

  The Master Builder is Hiram, the widow’s son, and the perfect Temple that must be built is Humanity. So says Masonry!

  Chapter 8: The Instituted Mysteries

  Prior to the year 1717 Freemasonry had no evidence of a past history. To all Masons this is a ridiculous statement in view of the instructions they received through the first three degrees. They believe that they have a glorious past as the Bible says in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. But, I did not make up this statement which is fact. In the New Freemasonry Encyclopaedia, Volume One, page 383, it is proclaimed:

  “It will be seen that we are in the presence of a mystery, and indeed it is literally true to say that our Emblematical Order [modern Freemasonry] is in this respect without a parallel in history. History of its own there is next to none available prior to the year 1717. In place of it there is speculation—romantic reverie, invention of every kind.”

  Where did Freemasonry obtain its past from? How did its doctrine originate? Where and how did its symbols begin? All of these answers are discoverable by reading the Masonic writers of the past and by reading the oft quoted Encyclopaedia.

  William Hutchinson (1732-1814) is termed “the father of Masonic symbolism.” He was an author of many Masonic books and lectures and is most noted for his work entitled The Spirit of Masonry published in 1775, in England. He is a recognized authority in the Mason’s Encyclopaedia.

  Hutchinson maintained that (1) the origin of Masonry is not solely from builders, architects and mechanics; (2) that Masons became such when Moses ordained the Sanctuary and Solomon the TempIe. They chose enlightened men by the true faith to conduct these “works of piety.” (3) The Masonic symbols were deduced from the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Israel, the Assideans, the Essenes, the Greeks and the Romans. In other words, a combination of the Instituted Mysteries of the past. It is to these Mysteries that we must look to and reveal before anyone can understand the real meaning of Masonry and its adopted history. None of these Mysteries are Christian. Most are occult and of other gods. In the chapter of Symbolism you were introduced to some and referred to the present discussion for enlightenment.

  Wilmshurst in The Meaning of Masonry at page 23, suggests that all of the “Mysteries” ultimately teach the same doctrine, and that doctrine is expressed in Masonry.

  “In all periods of the world’s history, and in every part of the globe, secret orders and societies have existed outside the limits of the official churches for the purpose of teaching what are called ‘the Mysteries’: for imparting to suitable and prepared minds certain truths of human life, certain instructions about divine things, about the things that belong to our peace, about human nature and human destiny, which was undesirable to publish to the multitude who would but profane those teachings and apply esoteric knowledge that was communicated to perverse and perhaps disastrous ends... but since the ultimate truth the ‘Mysteries’ aim at teaching is always and the same, there has always been taught, and can only be taught, one and the same doctrine. What that doctrine was, and still is, we will consider presently so far as Masonry gives expression to it. For the moment let me merely say that behind all the official religious systems of the world, and behind all the great moral movements and developments in the history of humanity, have stood what St. Paul called the keepers or ‘stewards of the Mysteries.’ From that source Christianity itself came into the world. From them originated the great school of Kabalism, that marvelous system of secret, oral tradition of the Hebrews, a strong element of which has been introduced into our Masonic system.”

  What is the single teaching that the ancient mysteries will have in common that Masonry adopts? That answer is found in the legend of Osiris and the resurrection of Hiram. It is symbolic or mystical death and resurrection. Otherwise referred to as “Initiation.” Wilmshurst at page 132 advises that the third degree alone constitutes the Masonic Initiation, and then explains:

  “To those unacquainted with what is really involved in actual as distinct from merely ceremonial initiation, and who have no notion of what initiation meant in the old schools of Wisdom and still means for those who understand the theory of Regenerative Science, it is well nigh impossible to convey any idea of its process or its results. The modern Mason, however high in titular rank, is as little qualified to understand the subject as the man who has never entered a Lodge. ‘To become initiated [or perfected], says an old authority, Plutarch, ‘involves dying’; not a physical death, but a moral way of dying in which the soul is loosened from the body and the sensitive life, and becoming temporarily detached therefrom is set free to enter the world of Eternal Light and Immortal Being. This, after most drastic preliminary disciplines, was achieved in a state of trance and under the supervision of qualified Masters.and Adepts who intromitted the candidate’s liberated soul into its own interior principles until it at last reached the Blazing Star of Glory at its own Centre, in the light of which it simultaneously knew itself and God, and realized their unity and the ‘points of fellowship’ between them. Then it was that, from this at once awful and sublime experience, the initiated soul was brought back to its bodily encasement again and ‘reunited to the companions of its former toils,’ to resume its temporal life, but with conscious realization of Life Eternal superadded to its knowledge and its powers. Then only was it entitled to the name of Master Mason. Then only could it exclaim, in the words of another initiate [Empledocles], ‘Farewell, all earthly allies; henceforth am I no mortal wight, but an immortal angel, ascending up into Divinity and reflecting upon that likeness of it which I have found in myself.’

  “The ‘secrets’ of Freemasonry and of initiation are largely connected with this process of introversion of the soul to its own Centre, and beyond this reference to the subject it is inexpedient here to say more. But in confirmation of what has been indicated it may be useful to refer to the 23rd Psalm, in which the Hebrew Initiates speak of both the supreme experience of being passed through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ and the preliminary phases of mental preparation for that ordeal. Stripping that familiar psalm of the gorgeous metaphor given it in the beautiful Biblical translation, its real meaning may be paraphrased and explained for Masonic students as follows:

  “(Then followed a revised version of the 23rd Psalm for the Masonic student to understand the ‘real’ meaning. David apparently said it wrong and he must not have been inspired by God when he wrote the Psalms. The Christian Mason should have a hard time with this revised ‘word of God.’)

  “The Vital and Immortal Principle within me is my Initiator; and is all self-sufficient to lead me to God.

  “It has made me lie down [in self-discipline and humiliation] in ‘green pastures’ of meditation and mental sustenance.

  “It has led me beside ‘still waters’ of contemplation [as distinct from the ‘rough sea of passion’ of my natural self].

  “It is restoring my soul [reintegrating it out of chaos and disorder]. “

  “Even when I come to pass through the valley of deadly gloom [my own interior veils of darkness] I will fear no evil; for It is with me [as a guiding star]; Its directions and disciplines will safeguard me. It provides me with the means of overcoming my inner enemies and weaknesses; It anoints my intelligence with the oil of wisdom; the cup of my mind brims over with new light and consciousness.

  “The Divine Love and Truth, which I shall find face to face at my Centre, will be a conscious presence to me all the days of my temporal life; and thereafter I shall dwell in a ‘house of the Lord’ [a glorified spiritual body] for ever.”

  That, my Christian friend, was the 23rd Psalm, Masonic style!

  Now to the Mysteries and the Masonic claim to their heritage and Initiation.

  Egyptian Mysteries

  Except when otherwise noted this information concerning the Egyptian Mysteries is taken from the New Freemason’s Encyclopaedia, Volume I, pages 225, 226 and 268. Masonic Authorities look to Egypt as the cradle of all antique Mysteries, and as the countr
y of initiation. The legend of Osiris has already been dealt with in earlier sections, but keep in mind that his legend and his purported resurrection is the great lesson or teaching of “initiation” in Masonry. In fact the Oriental Rite of Memphis, popular in Masonry in Europe, was founded and governed by the Grand Lodge Osiris in Brussels.

  “Egypt more than India and far more than Greece in the days when Mysteries flourished—was regarded as the country of initiation. At the value of each in respect of real warrants of research, there are witnesses to the same effect in the present day, and it seems to me—as one who watches without—that the more we learn concerning the Sanctuaries of the Delta, the greater looms their science, of which astronomy stands in the forefront as a mighty signpost or indicator.”

  It is asserted that all that is sublime in Masonry was birthed in the land of Egypt. Perhaps I should record this in ‘quotes for the Christian Mason to remember. This is found on page 268, Volume II:

  “(1) The spirit of the Mysteries is in the universal Law of Correspondence, which binds all things together; (2) the great triad is indestructible spirit, life and matter; (3) the land of Egypt was the birthplace of all that is sublime in Masonry; (4) it is there that the Rite was formed, in the valley of Memphis; (5) the most learned and powerful of the population were members ‘of the Mystic Tie’; (6) buildings of enormous magnitude were erected for the celebration of the Mysterious Masonic Rites; (7) the valiant, the learned, the powerful of all nations, sought admission within the sacred portals; and when the time came for the celebration of analogous Rites in Greece and Rome, they were but corruptions and perversions of ‘the moral teachings of Masonry.’”

  Yes, Egyptian Mysteries and Egyptian mythology represents Masonic initiation and are reflected in its rites and ceremonies, from funeral ritual to circumabulation as we discussed earlier. They were sun worshipers and diviners, and were everything that God told the children of Israel not to be. They believed in other gods and sent their dead to Osiris to be judged and united with him forever. Their Pharaoh’s went in grand style via the great pyramids which are but tombs. On our one dollar bill such a tomb appears. Why? You know the answer already. That is simply Masonic influence in the structure of America. The pyramid represents the steps one must climb to obtain Divine Wisdom, eternal life, ultimate truth and a bunch of other garbage that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ or the one and only Gospel in this world.

  In short, the Egyptian’s sun god, Re, and Osiris has as much influence on Masonry as Hiram Abif and his legend. At page 13 of the Freemason’s Encyclopaedia points out the importance of Egypt and its effect on Moses and the later mysteries of Greece and Rome:

  “The descent from Mysteries of Egypt into those of the classical world has been compared with the descent of the soul into material things. It is a false analogy, marking personal predilection; but it connotes an idea of derivation, that Greece inherited from Egypt, nor that at so great a distance. I suppose that the scholars of both subjects would challenge the assumption, which is crude enough in its derivation. The quest of Perephone is not the quest of Isis; the story of the rending of Iacchos has no real connection whatsoever with the dismemberment of Osiris; and those Masonic virtuosos who mistook accidents of analogy for root-identity and essential consanguinity were misled herein, as in most of their other reveries. It goes without saying that there is a general likeness between all mystical symbolism because there is a veridical and vital likeness in all mystical experience. That which is at issue is not a question of descent but one of common origin in the science of the soul, which science—so far as it existed in Egypt—has the appearance of being more overlaid and encumbered than it was in the classical world. Egypt, however, was the conventional fountainhead for the earlier Masonic literati, and perhaps after all the reason is not far to seek. They had heard on very high authority that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, and they magnified the measures of that wisdom because of the mission of Moses, their mythical first Grand Master. Outside Masonic circles, in those days when the world of learning stood agaze at great masses of hieroglyphical writing which no one could read, Egypt was a world wonder.”

  Perhaps this is what the prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision recorded in Ezekiel 8 concerning Israel and the house of Judah.

  “And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.

  “Then he said unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

  “Then he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

  “So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.

  “And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

  “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.

  “He said also again to me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

  “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was to the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

  “Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O Son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

  “Then he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the Temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”

  Ezekiel is being shown the past, present and the future of mankind in this vision. The seventy men represent the leaders of Israel before their destruction and dispersion by Assyria. They worshipped “every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts” in the hidden chambers of the Temple. They did this in the dark and in secret, believing themselves to be out of the sight of God. And they did this together as a brotherhood or one group in one accord.

  Their women weeped for “Tammuz.” This is another name for Adonis, the. Greek God who died and was resurrected. The Freemason’s Encyclopaedia at page 7 of Volume I gives the history of the Mysteries of Adonis and the “cultus of Tammuz.” If I may quote from a portion of this account:

  “We must set aside what is said of them on the part of Masonic writers, who have supposed fondly that they are in close ‘connection with the early history and reputed origin of Freemasonry.”

  Then Ezekiel was taken to the house of the Lord. This is the modern-day Church established by the Lion of Judah—Jesus Christ. There he saw five and twenty men with their backs to the, Temple and altar, and they were facing the east worshipping the sun (nature). These men represent the leaders of the Church as it exists today. Their eyes are not on the Lamb of God (altar), but on the Gods of Egypt and the east. They profess Christ, but are led by a doctrine that teaches that morality saves and that the brotherhood of man is the best work of life.

  Yes, they symbolize the cross as a form of initiation, but they place the same value in a hawk head, a horned Venus, a silver serpent, a double headed eagle, a God of wine, a simple compass, a square, and “every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts.” That doctrine that has their eyes and controls their lives is called Freemasonry. Their movements are governed by the sun (circumambulation) and they go to meetings at “holy Lodges” to worship the moon and the stars. They seek divine wisdom through a simple brass maker named Hiram Abif who has long been dead with no record that he was ever a godly man. They also idolize a king that fell from grace when he turned his back on God and faced the east by worshipping the gods of one of his wives, the Pharaoh’s daughter. They bel
ieve and teach their young that these men are immortal, and that they possessed and passed down a secret word that will and does save humanity.

  Shocked that your Church and governmental leaders are controlled by such abominations and idolatry? You shouldn’t be. Ezekiel foretold it for the Church to receive it. Perhaps we are just beginning to dig out the hole in the wall.

  The Eleusinian Mysteries

  These mysteries are the earliest and the greatest of the Greek Instituted Mysteries and play an important role in Masonic doctrine and instruction. Much print is given this subject in the Freemason’s Encyclopaedia beginning at page 233 of Volume I.

  “The central myth of the Mysteries is as familiar to classical readers as the story of Hiram is to Masons, and to those outside the Order who can be classed as students of Masonry. Demeter, a daughter of Saturn and Cybele, had Persephone as the fruit of her union with Zeus. Persephone was accounted beautiful, even among the womanhood of the Greek pantheon, and for her protection she was carried by her mother to Sicily, where she was placed in a secret house by the Cyclops in the midst of an earthly paradise. It was, however, to prove a place of doom, for when she and her maidens—Rhodope, Calypso and others—were gathering roses and lilies, with other of the garden’s flowers, the earth opened, and Pluto, god of the underworld, appeared in a golden chariot. There came about in this manner the Rape of Proserpine, who was borne lamenting to the darksome region and was exalted as Queen of Infernus. A quest legend follows on that of the rape, for Dementer went over the world, seeking her lost child in the disguise of an old woman. In this manner she came fasting to Eleusis, where she was as the nurse of Triptolemus or Demophon, son of Celeus, King of Attica, by his wife Metanira. The story is told at length in a Hymn of the sixth century B.C. which passes under the name of Homer. The points which concern us· are (1) that the goddess in her dereliction received the hospitality of Celeus and (2) that at length she threw off her disguise and was manifested in her divine attributes. She gave orders for the erection of a great temple, in which she herself established her august Mysteries. But we have seen that Demeter was goddess of corn, and during her sojourn at Eleusis the earth remained sterile. Foreseeing as the Hymn tells us, that he would be deprived of the homage of mortals, Zeus intervened and promised to restore Persephone to her mother, on condition that she had eaten nothing in Hades. But the fatality was still working and she had partaken of four pomegranate seeds, the consequence being that Pluto had power upon her for a certain term of months in every year, during which she must abide with him in the underworld. The term is variously described as six and four’ months: in the first case the six remaining were spent with Demeter; in the second the mother had four and Olympus claimed half of the remaining period. However it may be, Demeter was pacified; seed-time and harvest resumed their normal course, the earth was filled with plenty, and Zeus secured his need of human worship.”